I Want (Candy) ROXAS!
by Nobody13Xlll
Summary: Halloween hits the Destiny Islands, and when a prank goes south, Roxas decides its time to get even with his favorite brunette and his friends. Chaos ensues as Halloween reigns supreme, but all Sora can do is search for the sweetest thing he knows; Roxas. Sequel to All I Want For Christmas Is You
1. Hell Hath No Fury Like Roxas

**Disclaimer, I don't own Kingdom Hearts**

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><p>"Can I open my eyes now Roxie?"<p>

"Just one more second."

"But Roxie…" Sora moaned, flopping back onto my bed.

I rolled my eyes, tugging a mask halfway down my face.

"Alright you can open your eyes now Sora."

Sora sat up, checking me out from top to bottom, smiling widely.

"Ta-dah." I said, shrugging shyly.

"So this is what you've been working on!" He said, bouncing up and slowly circling me.

"Yeah. I tried to make it look like yours. You like it?"

For the past week and a half, I had been pricking my fingers and burning up Xion's sowing machine, working to finish up my Halloween costume. I had used Sora's default as the pattern, inversing the colors, making the pumpkin mask black and green, changing the demon wings to angel wings, along with a few other minor changes.

Why had I spent all that time killing myself for a holiday I could care less about? Because my boyfriend (Yep, after all that work at Christmas time, we're still together. Just had our 10 month anniversary too. And yeah he's still a juvenile goofball, but now he's my goofball) is as obsessed with Halloween as he is with me. A few years before I moved back, a traveling carnival called Halloween Town had passed through, where Sora had befriended the Pumpkin King, the crowned carnage horror, Jack Skellington. Ever since, Halloween had been one of his favorites.

It was actually kind of funny when you thought about it. The same guy who cried and hid whenever we watched Bambi's mother get shot, or even mentioned Bridge to Terabithia or Where the Red Fern Grows, would laugh through Saw Movies and actually scare the insane people who worked the haunted houses.

"Like it? This is amazing! We'll look awesome together. Did you do this all by yourself?"

"I had a little help from Mrs. Charming, but I did the rest." I said proudly.

I gave him a playful smirk, baring my plastic fangs.

"Scary enough for you babe?"

I would have accepted a lot of replies to this. A cute encouragement, a challenge to see who could scare more people, and spontaneous make our session. Any one of those would have been fantastic. I was ready for anything. Especially that make out session. What I wasn't ready for was Sora bursting out into laughter. I watched in confusion as Sora tried to pull himself together.

"What?"

Sora just smiled, trying to act serious, only to break out laughing again.

"What?" I demanded, annoyed.

"I'm sorry," Sora took a deep breath before finally collecting himself "Sorry about that."

"What's so funny?"

"Roxas, you're you. You're like a fluffy chocobo or a really cuddly teddy bear. You couldn't be scary if you tried."

"Excuse me?"

I wasn't scary? I was one of the most feared and respected gang (The good kind. Mostly) members back in Twilight Town, even Seifer was afraid of me.

"Oh come on Roxas, you're way too nice to be frightening. You're too cute."

Sora tried to wrap his arms around me, but I stepped away, huffing and crossing my arms.

"Just because I'm cute doesn't mean I'm not scary. I freak Axel out all the time, I could scare anybody."

Sora rolled his eyes.

"Right. Well here's your chance to prove it; everybody's downstairs, if you can scare at least one person, I'll take it all back."

"Deal."

Sora rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on Roxie, is it really that bad that I call you cuddly and cute and stuff? I meant it as a compliment, you're my Blondie Roxie!"

No it didn't really matter. While the majority was flattering, my status as top dog had been challenged, and I wouldn't be backing down anytime soon.

I turned around and started out the door heading downstairs. I stopped at the top of the stairs, looking back at Sora.

"Just to make sure, when I go and scare everybody, you'll take it all back and admit that I'm scary, right?"

Sora leaned up against the wall, folding his arms behind his head.

"_If_ you can scare anybody, the yeah, I'll take it all back."

I nodded, silently stalking down the stairs. Halloween was tomorrow and my house apparently was the headquarters. Everyone had come here, chatting, laugh, and plotting out Halloween parties, pranks, and costumes. I had started to ask Cloud if I could throw a party, but my brother had just leaned back, crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow. Forgive and forget were foreign concepts in this house, and I doubted he would be forgetting or forgiving the disaster of my last Christmas party.

I slunk through the living and dining rooms where most of our crew ere, heading for the kitchen. Sora strayed behind me, patient and smiling, waiting to be proven wrong. If he wanted proof, this would be everything he needed and more.

My older brother, Cloud, stood in the kitchen doorway, looking out into the backyard. I wasn't going for anything big, no elaborate pranks of anything, all I had to do was scare somebody. And the easiest trick in the book was to jump out at someone. Yeah it wouldn't be my greatest work, but who cares?

I crept forward, completely silent, stopping only a few inches behind him. I took a deep, quiet breath, and raised my arms, gloved claws ready…

"Try it and you're boyfriend privileges are revoked for a month." Cloud said, still staring out at the yard.

I froze while Sora busted up laughing, again. Cloud glanced back, unimpressed.

"You can do better, honestly I hear you stomp in. You're losing your touch."

I frowned and turned back to Sora. He just smiled.

"I hate to say I told you so, but-"

"Yeah well Cloud's different. He broods too much to be scared, he's like an emo batman. I can get anyone else, just watch."

"Be my guest. Let's see just how scary you are." Sora waved me on, smiling widely.

Alright, this was just a minor setback. I took another deep breath and headed for the dining room. I pushed open the door, only to be met by empty darkness. The door swung shut behind me as I walked in, confused. Where did everybody go?

"Hey Sora, can you…"

When I turned around, Sora wasn't there. I went back to the kitchen door, but it wouldn't budge.

"Sora?" I called, anxiety bubbling up inside me. The room was starting to feel too big, the darkness swallowed everything up.

I didn't like the darkness, the hollow emptiness terrified me, especially when I was alone.

"Cloud!" I called, the fear starting to sing with my voice.

It was too empty, too dark, I couldn't breathe. I whirled around and started for the front door. Even the windows were pitch black, I could barely see my hand in front of my face. I managed to make my way to the door, and tried to find the handle.

Something scuttle across the ground behind me. I spun, but whatever it was, was swallowed by the shadows. I turned back to the door and tried opening it. Jammed.

More scuttling, and whirled around in time to see a flicker of yellow, quickly vanishing into the emptiness. "Hello?" More scuttling. And then two glowing yellow orbs opened up on the other side of the room. I blinked and took a step back. The orbs floated around, tilting, before suddenly blinking. Blinking? What had eyes like that?

Another pair of eyes suddenly opened up in the darkness, followed by another, and another, and another. The scuttling got closer and closer, and the eyes started advancing. I backed up the stairs, only for the eyes to start to follow me, slowly picking up speed, getting a little too close for comfort. I was halfway up the stairs when an inhuman screech erupted from the eyes, and a light flickered in the darkness.

In the brief seconds we had light, I made out several strange black forms with twisted bodies, crooked antennae, and thick claws, twitching and convulsing as they made their way up the stairs. And then there was only darkness and the yellow eyes.

I turned and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I reached the top and was planning how to barricade the door and get the hell out of here, when a pair of glowing eyes suddenly flashed to life in front of me, a feral roar rasping from the creature.

I screamed.

I know it wasn't exactly the bravest thing to do, but my mind wasn't here to tell me that. It was back in an abandoned subway station right after my parents died, right after the accident. I was alone, everything was so dark, so empty, something was coming towards me, something that scuttled and had big yellow eyes…

There was a flash of light, and suddenly laughter erupted around me. My heart was beating a mile a minute as the light flashed on. Sora was standing in front of me with a camera, a strange headlamp with two yellow orbs, turning on and off every few seconds, strapped to his forehead. I slowly turned around. The rest of our crew was on the stairs, laughing with him.

They all wore the same strange headband, and were wearing skin tight black hoodies, the hoods bearing antennae, the sleeves ending in gloved claws.

"You should have seen you're face!" Sora cackled, cracking up. It was just a prank.

"You cream like a little girl, you know that?" Hayner asked, earning another round of giggles from Pence and Olette.

_My heart was beating faster and faster. _

"We got you good." Kairi giggled, falling back against Leon, who wrapped his arms around Cloud, smirking up at me.

_More darkness, swallowing me up._

"We heard you and Sora on the baby monitors (Ever since Cloud had caught Vanitas and Ventus in the closet, every room had been installed with a baby monitor so Cloud could check up on us and make sure no more funny business went on). He had this planned earlier, and when we heard you being all macho, we thought it was the perfect time to spring the trap."

_Fear was turning into fury and hysteria. _

"Come on bro, you couldn't be scary if you tried." Ven laughed, bumping affectionately into his boyfriend.

"I couldn't help it, it was just too perfect to pass up." Sora was passing around the camera, they were all laughing.

_Dark, too dark, too empty. I couldn't breathe. _

Cloud suddenly frowned, leaning away from his boyfriend, staring up at me with concern.

"Roxas?"

_I was shaking with rage, or was that the lack of oxygen?_

People turned back to me, worry replacing the jovial looks.

"Roxie_?"_ Sora asked, reaching out to me.

A strangled cry was all I could utter, before I was suddenly in my room. The door slammed shut so hard that the walls shook, pictures clattering down to the floor. I locked the door and sunk down to the ground.

_I was sobbing, I think, sobbing or screaming, I wasn't sure. _

_The darkness. The memories. Too much._

This was all Sora's fault, Sora and this dumb costume. I tore it off, throwing away the fabric, tearing it away, before huddling up, trying to breathe again. I could hear people on the other side of the door, knocking and trying to talk to me. A few times I heard Ventus offer to go get the key or for Vanitas to pick the lock, but no one ever answered.

Eventually the voices stopped, and I was finally left alone. I stared out my window, watching out at the midnight sky, watching the stars. I sat there for hours, trying to forget. I don't know when I realized it, but somehow I eventually figured out that Sora was on the other side of the door. He hadn't left like everyone else.

A few more minutes went by before I head him quietly knock. I recoiled from the door, curling up into a ball.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Roxas. I didn't mean to… I didn't know. I'm sorry."

Leave me alone.

"I'll be right here. You shouldn't be alone Roxas. Please let me in."

Silence. I heard Sora sigh and shift around, certain he was now lying in front of my door.

"I'll be right here. I'm here for you… I love you Roxas."

I know you do. You just have a funny way of showing it. But he didn't know about this, you didn't talk to him about that night, a voice in my head said. But Cloud did. Ventus did. They should have known how I would react, the memories something like this might bring back. Anger came back to me, memories of seeing my former nemesis, Riku, kissing my Sora. Sora could have stopped him, he could have done something to stop himself from being whored out to that monster.

And then everything was Sora's fault, everything that had ever gone wrong, that could possibly go wrong, was his fault. I sat there for the rest of the night, stewing in hate, before sleep finally claimed me.

x-X-x

I'm used to being woken up in a variety of ways. "I've been tickled awake, kicked out of bed, had my mattress flipped, kissed, slapped, been hosed, and even once had my blankets set on fire when I refused to wake up for Axel.

Suddenly waking up to a gag being shoved in my mouth and a bag thrown over my head was a new one. I tried to scream and fight, but someone grabbed me, holding me as tightly as they could. I squirmed against them, trying to break away, but they managed to hold tight. Cold air suddenly whipped up, and I shivered as my feet touched the freezing windowsill. Wait, the windowsill?! "Catch!" My assailant called quietly, and suddenly I was falling. I had just been thrown out of the window. So this was how I was going to die huh?

A pair of strong arms caught me, followed by a loud groan.

"Sheesh Rox, you put on a few pounds or something?"

Axel? I pulled the bag off my head and spit out the gag, glaring at my favorite pyromaniac.

"What the hell!"

Axel covered my mouth, glancing up at the house.

"Quick, before Cloud realizes we were here!" He called.

Someone in a familiar black cloak swung out my window, carefully climbing down, throwing back their hood as they came over. Demyx smiled proudly.

"To the van!" He shout-whispered, dashing around the side of the house.

I glanced down at Axel, realizing he too was wearing the same black cloak. Axel started running, sprinting past the front yard, aiming for Demyx's old band van.

"What's going on Axel?" I asked, hopping out of his arms and into the backseat.

""You're late, that's what's going on" Axel said as he strapped himself in "Drive Demyx."

The van puttered to life and I glanced at the clock.

"Axel it's four in the morning, what am I late for? And did you seriously let that idiot throw me out a window?"

"Hey, I'm not an idiot!"

"Can it Demyx, you know it's rude to tell lies. And he didn't as much as throw, it was more of a loving toss down to me."

"I'm going to lovingly kick you in the crotch when we stop." I warned.

Axel just laughed, rolling his eyes.

"Whatever you say Roxy. Almost there."

Five minutes later, Demyx pulled up behind a building, and I found myself being shoved through its back doors.

"Axel, what is going on?" I asked again, shivering in the October cold air.

I hadn't had enough energy to put on more than pair of shorts after I got rid of that stupid costume last night, I was too drained yesterday. Axel ignored the question, propelling me into the dark space, passing large mechanical devices, dressing rooms, props, and kitchens, before pushing me out past a set of black and silver curtains.

"You're up!" Axel said, vanishing in a swirl of his dark cloak.

I stumbled past another set of curtains, cold feet padding onto a large stage. I frowned, glancing around in confusion. All of this was vaguely familiar now that I wasn't being rushed around. I took in the stage, the pristine surface, the curtains, and the strange symbol at the top of the stage. Wait a second…

"Congratulations, Roxas Strife!" A familiar voice called from the vast sea of darkness.

I whirled around as the lights turned on, revealing an enormous dance floor, a bar, perfectly aligned tables and light, and twelve black cloaked figures. I was at Club XIII, my favorite hangout. Axel and the rest of my gang had started work here at the end of summer, getting it prepped for its grand opening. After months of waiting and wanting, I had finally been able to apply for the job her, loving the club and fun that the boss, Xemnas, always promised. There had only been one more opening left, I had been obsessing over this position, and now…

"After reviewing you devotion, creativity, and resourcefulness, you have been chosen to join our ranks. Let us welcome our thirteenth and final member to the family."

Hoods were thrown off, and cheers sounds, my friends whooping and making cat calls, while the senior members either stood there smiling or looked around, bored out of their minds.

"Nice abs Roxy, they look tasty!" Larxene called, giving out a loud wolf whistle.

I blushed a little, and Xemnas approached, holding out a cloak, boots, and gloves. I eagerly accepted, throwing on and looking to Xemnas for approval.

"I am leaving you under Axel's supervision for the time being. Do not make me regret this decision."

"I won't. Thank you so much."

Xemnas nodded, turning back to the group.

"I ask that the members who volunteered to work their shifts during tonight's festivities begin their duties, the rest of you may help set up for our grand reopening. I expect you to stay in you cloaks, they are your club uniform tonight, and I expect them to catch on and grab attention. Dismissed."

The crowd dispersed, and I stood there, grinning like an idiot.

"I didn't think you'd mind the kidnapping once you realized what was going on." Axel remarked, striding up to the stage.

"This is awesome!"

Larxene rolled her eyes and said "Yeah, working for a crazy man who asks us to get up at four in the morning to kidnap our new staff member and clean up for a party that doesn't' start for another thirteen hours. Awesome."

"I can't wait to tell everybody, Sora's gonna…"

Oh right. Sora. The anger started coming back and I scowled.

"Sensing trouble in paradise." Larxene warned.

"What's up?"

I filled them in on what had happened, explaining my panic attack and the events of that night so long ago.

"You not scary?" Demy asked. "Do they even know you?"

"You should get back at him." Larxene advised, the others quickly nodding in agreement.

"Oh, a revenge plan? How intriguing." Marluxia and Luxord wander over, followed by Xigbar.

"I always admired this holiday." Luxord admitted "The idea of terrifying the innocent and being congratulated was always an appealing concept somehow."

"That's not at all creepy." Demyx muttered, only to get elbowed by Larxene.

"So, at whom is this revenge to be served?" Zexion asked, suddenly appearing beside me.

"Don't you people have jobs?" Axel asked, trying to give me some space.

Demyx and Larxene answered for me.

"Sora said he wasn't scary."

"And when he tried to prove that he was, everyone pulled this killer prank on him-wish I'd thought of it."

"And it brought back some kid trauma Roxy went through a long, long time ago, and re-traumatized our newbie."

"Sounds like quite a few people in need of a good helping of justice." Luxord mused.

"Oh and I know just how to do it! Oh, I would love to see that twin of yours freak out!"

And that's when I got it. A plan, a wonderfully wicked, glorious plan.

"You guys like to prank people, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"What if I could give you a whole bunch of people just dying to be scared to death?"

"But we can scare anyone. Why should we help you get revenge kiddo?" Xigbar asked, plucking lazily at his eye patch.

Zexion hushed Xigbar and turned back to me.

"Continue."

"Revenge is fun, especially in groups. And yeah, you guys can scare anybody, but I know how to really get inside these people's heads, I know what really terrifies them. Help me, and you'll get to pull off the greatest scare you could ever imagine."

Zexion motioned for the others to follow them and circled around a few feet away, furiously whispering. Axel suddenly leaned out of the circle asking "How many people were in on the prank?"

"Thirteen."

They went back to whispering. Finally, they turned back to me and Axel stepped forward.

"Just to make sure you know, you're dealing with a bunch of psychos, and you're giving them permission to go off and scare some of your best friends, right?"

I nodded. "Psychos are exactly what I'm looking for."

"You're accountable for anything that goes wrong, you deal with all the complaints?"

"Deal."

Axel shook his head. "Not quite. You've got thirteen victims, but right now counting you, we've only got eight volunteers. You want this done right, you need five more."

Five more? I glanced over at the bar where the other members were working.

"I've got an idea."

I walked over to eh bar where Xemnas, Saix, and Vexen were going over paperwork while Lexaeus and Xaldin worked on shining the counter.

"Excuse me, but-"

"The answer is no." Xemnas stated simply.

I frowned.

"Sir, I just wanted to thank you and I was just wondering if you could help me-"

"We heard all about it, you're friends were practically screaming the details. This is a place of business and it is opening tonight. I cannot allow myself, or my staff to be involved in such frivolous activities. I have enough problems we lack the amount of publicity we had previously anticipated."

I frowned, my hopes crumbling. Suddenly Zexion was beside me.

"Sir, what if these were scares of a different, more public manner?"

"What are you talking about?" Saix asked, uninterested.

"You said you want publicity right?"

Xemnas just kept working.

"What if we made these scares very public, if you allowed us, we could change this from a 'frivolous activity' into a publicity stunt. If we play our cards right, tonight Club XIII will be the hottest hang out in town."

That got Xemnas' attention. "Publicity stunt spectaculars… Thirteen very public, terrifying events to show off the grand opening of our club." He exchanged glances with Saix and Vexen, a silent conversation going on between them.

"Thanks." I murmured to Zexion.

"Riku."

"What?"

"I heard you mention Riku earlier. He was there?"

I nodded.

"I'll take care of him personally, tell me everything you know."

Xemnas finally spoke up "Very well. Go by the following guidelines and you may do as you please. How do you intend to enact your revenge?"

I beamed widely. Time to get revenge for yesterday, for Christmas, for every other time my friends had crossed me. You want to see how scary I am Sora? Let's find out.

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><p><strong>Hey everybody! Just wanted to get this out there so you'd all know where to look, cause it's time for Roxie's revenge! Hope you enjoyed and look out for the other chapters coming out on Halloween! Have a great morningday/night! P.S. if anyone out there's interested I could use a beta!**


	2. 12 PM-Naminé

**Disclaimer, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Yet.**

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><p><strong>12:00 P.M. Naminé<strong>

"And now ladies and gentlemen we come to my favorite part of the tour, the abstract exhibits."

My small group oohed and awed as we paced forward, studying the strange pieces around the room. Castle Oblivion Art Gallery had just opened, and I was one of the lucky ones to get an early morning tour.

It had been amazing, with beautiful sculptures, breath taking landscapes, strange portraits, and thought provoking exhibits. I had my sketch book out as I circled the room, taking notes and hastily drawing small versions of each piece for later enjoyment.

I passed a strange, headless dummy in rainbow paint, trapped in a cage, a unique shade projection piece, and finally stopped in front of a large, black mirror. Its glass was impossibly smooth, somehow seeming to suck the light out of everything.

There was no plaque or name around the large mirror, however what looked like a playing card had been stuck to the wall beneath it.

"Excuse me?"

The tour guide glanced up smiling with a "Yes?"

"Who made this piece?"

The guide meandered over, politely nodding to the other before coming to my side, frowning at the mirror.

"That's peculiar, I actually don't recall seeing this piece here before." They admitted.

They studied the mirror for a few seconds while the others from the tour came over, curious at our sudden interest. I watched as they appeared in the mirror, mesmerized by the grace we seemed to possess, the quality that the mirror portrayed us with.

"I think it's meant to symbolize a dark inner persona." A woman suggested, the others quickly agreeing before adding in their own comments.

I nodded as well, looking down and starting to sketch the mirror. The only problem was that I couldn't seem to get the glass right, it wasn't dark enough. I took a step forward, and started sketching again, trying to perfect the shiny look.

And then I heard a tap. I stop, glancing around, but there was nothing there, and the others were still discussing the effect of the mirror. Probably someone taping a wall or something. I went back to my sketch, only to hear another loud tap. I frowned and looked around again. Everything was the same, nothing was different.

I huffed in annoyance and turned back to the mirror. I studied myself in the mirror, ready to sketch, only to stop and blink, staring. Maybe I shouldn't have stayed up so late working, or maybe I shouldn't have gotten up so early. Or maybe I should just be taking more medication.

Because reflections don't move unless you do. And yet for a split second, I could have sworn my reflection looked around, gaze fearful, before once again mirroring my movements. One of the others walked forward and pried the playing card from the wall.

On the other side, the name 'Club XIII' was stenciled in strange silver scrawl, an odd cross with a heart shaped bottom taking the place of the center I. Funny, the top looked a lot like Roxas' necklace.

"Oh yeah, I heard of that place, it's the new club downtown. They're having their grand opening tonight."

"Intriguing." The tour guide said, stroking his blonde goatee.

I shivered as they spoke. The guide was a foreigner, his British accent oozing sweetly through his dulcet tones.

The guide politely took the card away, pocketing it and saying "Forgive me but I fear I must report this incident. Please, continue viewing, and enjoy the show."

I was still confused about his last few words when he left the room, leaving us all alone. I turned back to the mirror still frowned. I squealed when my reflection moved without me again, peering at the corner before whirling around to face the other reflections.

"He's gone, quick!"

"Young lady, what are you doing?" A man beside me asked.

"Shouting in a gallery, honestly, what…"

Their tour groups voices trailed off, staring at the mirror as the reflections crowded up to the glass, pounding at its dark surface.

"Please help us!"

"He trapped us, we can't get out!"

The group was gasping, turning pale as we watched. Tears ran down my reflections eyes, she slammed her dainty fist against the glass pleading to be released. Somebody let out a nervous laugh.

"This is incredible" The woman tried, her laughter dying off "You could almost think they were real."

The woman's reflection glared at her shouting "I am real! We're all real! That man, he kidnaped us, please, get us out of her now!"

The group was getting uncomfortable.

"Now see here, this isn't funny anymore." A boy called, anger and confusion starting to shine through.

The others were starting to agree when a sudden terrified scream tore through the air.

"My body! My body, where's my body!"

We spun around to see the headless mannequin stumbling around in its cage, the head previously inanimate head nailed to the outside panicking, unable to see its groping body.

"Where's my body? What happened to me? Where am I?"

Some of the group turned on their heels and ran, only for us to hear their panicked cries seconds later. The art was alive. Paintings, sculptures, models, it was all coming alive, trying to escape the gallery, screaming at anyone who got too close.

There was a loud crack behind us, and I twirled around in time to see a large spider web fracture spreading across the mirrors surface. I started back, screaming as I ended up backing into the cage.

The mannequin groped at my head, its own calling "No, no I'm over here!"

This was my worst nightmare, a terror I had pushed down years and years ago. The glass shattered, and the reflections came pouring out with a victorious cry.

"We're free!"

And then my reflection turned to me, face contorted with rage.

"Get her!"

I screamed again, trying to run, but I didn't make it three steps before the reflections caught up to me, lifting me up and making their way to the broken mirror.

"Wait, stop, please!"

The reflections just gave an enraged cry, ignoring my struggles.

"Why are you doing this?"

The reflections hurled me into the broken mirror. All the warmth and light was suddenly vacuumed out of the room, darkness taking of a pale, monochrome version of the room. I shivered on the cold ground before looking up at this side of the mirror. Color and light flourished on the other side, and I could see and hear the reflections cheering. My own reflection walked forward, glaring daggers at me.

"Why?"

"We've been trapped in there our whole lives while you pranced around, living your perfect little lives" She smiled cruelly "But now it's finally our turn to be the living ones."

A crowd of art charged forward and I was suddenly joined as they threw in the other members of the tour group.

"Seal it up!" They cried, while we all screamed.

Working faster than I could imagine, the art and reflections pieced the mirror back together, and in a matter of seconds, the glass was as flawless as it had been before the chaos started. The art gave another cheer, before a statue came forward, a bucket of black paint in their marble hands, lobbing the liquid at the glass.

The black liquid claimed the surface, the art quickly smoothing it out, and soon, all evidence that there had ever even been a mirror was gone. People screamed and shouted, the sound echoing around eerily. They cried and held each other, begging for help or trying to deny that any of this was happening.

I couldn't breathe, this was the most terrifying thing that had ever happened to me. And then the footsteps started. After a few moments, we all turned around, staring in fear as a figure in a pitch black cloak advanced. They stopped a few feet away while we blubbered and cried, hearts racing.

"Naminé."

I froze as it spoke my name, heart jumping into my throat. Everyone slowly turned their heads and stared at me.

"Step forward."

I gulped, my limbs refusing to move.

"Now!" they thundered.

I stumbled to my feet and rushed forward, whimpering and staring up into the empty hood.

"Crimes have punishments my dear. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Behold your fate."

The figure snapped forward and I screeched in agony as my body contorted, feeling like an elephant had just flattened me like a pancake. Light blared painfully around me, and I blinked, trying to remain conscious. When it all faded, I let out a sigh of relief. I was back in the gallery, back in the real world. I must have just had one of those walking nightmares or maybe it was a horrible side effect of the cold medicine I had been taking.

My heart was still blazing on a mile a minute, and I took a few calming breaths, deciding that it was probably a good idea to take a break from the art world for a while. I was a little too obsessed with it right now. Besides, it was time to get going anyways, Kairi was expecting me to meet up with her at the botanical gardens at one. I made to walk forward, but my limbs didn't' seem to want to obey me. I frowned, trying to look down, but I couldn't. What the heck was happening?

After a few seconds, I realized that I hadn't been moving at all since the world reappeared. I had been carefully breathing through a painfully bright, permanent smile, my chest barley rising. What was going on?! And then the figure in the black cloak came in to my view. I wanted to scream, to run, to struggle, but apparently now all I could move were my eyes.

"I must say, you look simply marvelous. You were born for a calling such as this."

Wait, that voice! The figure pulled back the hood, and the blonde tour guide smiled at me, electric blue eyes piercing my soul.

"Confused? That's to be expected. Allow me to illuminate the nature of your punishment."

The man reached into his dark cloak, pulling out a small hand mirror.

"Magnificent, simply magnificent don't you agree my darling? Of course you do. Out here for all the world to behold."

I was in a painting. Or rather, I was a painting. I was trapped in a black and silver frame, waving out to the world, hair blowing back, and smile positive and flirtatious. Only the eyes looked out of place, fear pulsing through the fearful tears streaming down my cheeks, smudging the paint. No, no, this couldn't be happening!

My skin was blurred and glittery, oil and pastels dominating my entire body. Please, no! My breathing was slowing, my eyesight was going blurry. A tour guide came into view with my old group, brilliant smiles plastered to their faces, eyes dark and cold.

"And over here is a remarkable piece called 'Irony', an artist turned to art instead of turning others into art. It symbolizes what happens when you mess with people who are very, very terrifyingly scary. Of course it could just be a happy girl waving to her friends, but who cares about that? Onto the next exhibit!"

No! No, no, no this wasn't happy! My eyesight was almost gone, my lungs burned for nonexistent air.

"Oh I do love a good scare." My tour guide said.

And then everything was black.

* * *

><p>I gasped, shooting up and screaming, drawing stares from those around me.<p>

A camera crew quickly descended on me asking "Miss, we understand that you were part of this sensational scare as well, can you give us any details?"

I stared up at them dumbly, still shaking, before they frowned, the cameraman saying "Cut" and turning off his camera. The female reporter sighed, glancing around.

"One of the biggest pranks in the Destiney Islands history and they're all too clueless to talk about it. At least we have the video feed, and we know who did it, you get that address?"

The cameraman nodded.

"Good, let's head down there and see if we can score and interview. Pranking like this is just genius, ratings are going to go through the roof!"

"What happened?" I asked, standing shakily to my feet.

The cameraman shrugged, simply stating "Big Halloween prank by Club XIII."

Club XIII again? What was it?

"At least you got a shirt out of all this, nobody else got one of those."

Confused, I looked down. I was in a pure black and silver long sleeved shirt, strange vine like symbols running up the arms and around the back. On the front, the Roman numeral X was written along with the words "Charged with aiding and abetting. Found Guilty."

On the back, the name Club XIII was scrawled in the same way it had been on the card. I saw my sketchbook lying on the ground and picked it up, intending to make a hasty retreat. I ended up tripping over my own beet, and the book flipped open, a strange flier falling loose of the pages.

I stared at the flier, taking in the picture, fear clawing its way back into my heart. The page was dominated by a picture of me. The picture of me in the painting, trapped once again, my skin marred as my own tears ruined me, yet still smiling psychotically and waving ecstatically at the view. Below the picture was a simple sentence.

"You got off easy. The others won't."

x-X-x

"The mission was a success Roxas. Oh that was fun. I just wish that I'd had more time."

"Yeah, you did a great job. Help me with these bandages will you?"

"My, that's quite a little risqué look don't you think."

Roxas just flashed a mischievous smile, eyes shining.

"I'm going after the first place prize Lux, and I'm not going to be holding back."

"I can certainly see that. Now if you'll excuse me, Xemnas wants me at the bar, apparently I have an interview to take care of."

I smirked and stated walking off, before slowly turned back to the blonde.

"Who's up next in this diabolically fun little game of revenge?"

Roxas just smiled, tightening the bandages.

"Kairi. I told him to go wild with her."

Oh, this would be good. I almost felt sorry for Roxas' victims, those poor unfortunate souls, who were about to be scared to death and back again.

The keyword there being almost.

* * *

><p><strong>Twelve P.M., twelve hours left, twelve not-so-innocent victims left to take care of, and one very angry dual wielder. Might not be as funny as Christmas, but hopefully it works! Keep reading and see what happens, have a terrifying Halloween!<strong>


	3. 1 PM-Kairi

**Disclaimer; I do not own the rights to Kingdom Hearts. I do however now have a restraining order from Tetsuya Nomura. **

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><p><strong>1:00 P.M. Kairi<strong>

I frowned, glancing down at my phone. I had been waiting outside of the Destiny Islands Botanical Gardens for ten minutes now, waiting for Naminé to show up. Her trip to the art gallery shouldn't have taken this long, and if she didn't get here soon, we were going to be behind schedule. We had bought special pumpkins this year, designed especially to be pink for a surprise to our friends. We were supposed to pick them up and rush home so we could start carving, but I only had half the money, Naminé had the other half. And the longer I waited, the less time we had to carve, finish decorating, and get into costume. Finally I sighed and tried calling her again.

"H-Hello?"

"Naminé? Are you okay? Where are you, we have to pay for the pumpkins and get carving soon."

"S-sorry, I just, I-I…" Naminé took a deep breath "I'll be there soon. And I'm fine just really, really freaked out. Really scared. Be there soon…"

Naminé hung up. I frowned down at the phone in confusion before shrugging and walking into the gardens. I might as well get us started, save some time. Inside the huge glass dome of the gardens, the air was warm and humid, the chills of tropical winter wavered and gave way to eternal spring and summer.

Dazzling arrays of exotic flowers were scattered about, strange and colorful trees, some with fruit, others without, and more were everywhere. Carefully manicured hedges led the paths around the enormous space, the cobblestone path twisting and spanning over bridges, past ponds, under waterfalls, and through beds of beautiful flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

I made my way to the far wall, heels clacking against the stony trail. I searched the flower beds as I walked on, taking in the perfection. I should really take Riku around here sometime. I frowned as I passed a rose bush that looked as though it had been overtaken by Venus fly traps. Must have been my imagination, no one would let something like that happen in these gardens. As I kept walking, a pink bow popped up over some shrubbery, closely followed by the head gardener, Aerith. She smiled gently as I came over, giving a polite wave.

"Hey Mrs. Aeri."

"Good Moring Kairi. How are you today?"

"I'm doing great, thanks. Just here to pick up some last minute pumpkins, Naminé and I ordered them in extra special."

"Oh yes, the pink pumpkins. They're just over here."

Aerith carefully peeled off dirt encrusted gloves and led the way to a small greenhouse like building.

"So where is miss Naminé today? I was hoping to talk to her about designing a brochure for the gardens."

"She got hung up at the art gallery, but she should be here soon."

"The gallery? I think I heard something about it on the news this morning… Hmm, what was it that happened?"

"Naminé mentioned they just revamped the abstract exhibit." I offered, but Aerith frowned and shook her head.

"No, it wasn't that. I was busy tangling with the rose bushes- they've been sprouting some odd growths lately- and I remember that the radio was saying something about art so real it was coming alive or some other nonsense."

Art that came alive? I'm not sure if Naminé would freak out or die of excitement. Come to think of it though, she had sounded pretty shaken up earlier… We walked into the greenhouse at the same time as a pink haired gentleman in a pastel green suit sauntered out, throwing us a chilling smile as we passed.

"Who was that?" I asked as Aeri started up and down the airless of the greenhouse, searching for our abnormal pumpkins.

"Marluxia? Oh he's one of the gardens patrons, a big botany gentleman. The things he can do with flowers are just fantastic. Here we are!"

Aerith triumphantly hefted up two moderately sized bubble gum pink pumpkins. I cooed in delight, rushing over and snatching one up, examining it in the light. It was absolutely perfect, the shading was just right, the colors were brilliant. The wait had definitely been worth it.

"They're darling Aeri, thank you!"

Aerith just smiled and led the way to a cash register beside the door. "I'm glad you liked them. They were actually Marluxia's own design, a combination of genetics and dye as far as I can comprehend."

"I can only pay for mine right now" I explained, pulling some munny out of my purse "But Naminè should be here in just a few more minutes to pick her us."

"Oh that's fine, I know she'll be here." Aerith tapped on the machine before the slot popped open and she quickly withdrew my change, adding in the receipt. "Would you like to keep me company while you wait for her? I have some of those Paopu Flowers you've been dying to see."

"Sure!" I happily skipped after Aerith, only to nearly run into her when she came to a sudden stop.

"Excuse me, but I'm going to have to ask you to not touch the flowers, it's one of the garden rules."

I looked around her in confusion, flinching back in surprise when I spotted a figure in a pitch black cloak, stroking one of the rose bushes. Their face was concealed in the shadows of their hood, and I felt myself shrinking as they turned around, easily towering over the two of us.

"I would also appreciate you showing your face. I don't feel comfortable not knowing whom I am talking to."

The figure stayed silent for a long while before raising an arm and pointing a slender, gloved finger straight at me, stopping my heart.

"How do you plead?"

"Excuse me?" Aerith stepped in front of me protectively. The figure remained silent, my blood turning to ice, knowing it was staring straight at me.

"How do you plead?"

"I-I don't know."

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave sir, or else I will be forced to alert the authorities."

The figure ignored her, slowly raising their arms to the sky.

"The jury finds all thirteen of the accused guilty. Let the punishment be worthy of the crime."

There was a flash of crimson light and the figure vanished in an explosion of flower petals.

"What just happened?"

Aerith looked around in shock, giving me a shaky shrug.

"I'm not really sure… But I do know that that man just threatened you, we need to contact the police."

Aerith slowly propelled us back to the greenhouse, telling me not to worry, that it was just some harmless psycho, and that if she had a dollar for every time she'd been given hollow threats she'd be a millionaire.

Something slid by in the corner of my eye, and I snapped my head in its direction, seeing nothing but rose bushes. I frowned as we pass, remembering that just a few minutes ago it had been almost completely overgrown with fly traps.

Now it was thriving, branches thick, leaves crisp, colors vibrant and alive. The flowers almost seemed to pulse, like a constant breeze was passing by, but the air was still. Aerith and I got back to the greenhouse at the same time as several other families came over.

"Ah hello there, what can I do for you?"

"Oh we were just passing through. We're new to the islands and we heard this was a must see location."

The children in the group crossed their arms and huffed, one boy muttering something about wanting ot go do something fun.

"You promised we'd go to the haunted house!" One little girl whined.

"Later sweetheart. Don't you want to see all the pretty flowers?"

"I wanna go to the haunted house, I want to see scary stuff!"

The other kids quickly rallied to her side, their defiant cries echoing through the dome while the parents attempted to calm them, casting apologetic glances at Aerith.

"The flowers are pretty scary here!" I shouted, stepping forward.

The children quieted, giving me skeptical looks.

"No they're not, flowers are pretty, they can't scare you."

Time for drastic action.

"Oh but these are special flowers that only grow on the Destiny Islands. Of course they look pretty, that's how they trick you."

I had the kid's attention now, they surrounded me, eyes wide, asking a barrage of questions.

"Why do they trick you?"

I smiled at the little boy who asked, setting down my pumpkin and saying "Well, the flowers on Destiney Islands, they-"

I glanced around, before leaning down and motioning for the kids to come closer. They eagerly leaned in and I whispered "The plants on the Islands eat people!"

The children gasped, looking around with awe filled eyes.

"Really? No way!"

"I think I saw that one move!"

"That one's looking at me funny!"

The parents all smiled and nodded appreciatively at me, while Aerith gave advice on where to go and what to see.

"Nice job back there, you're very talented with children."

"Thanks, I really love kids. They are just so adorable!"

I was leaning down to get my pumpkin when I realized that it wasn't there anymore.

"Um, Aerith did one of those kids take my pumpkin?"

Aerith glanced back to the group of families migrating away from us, eyes flashing over all of them, before shaking her head.

"But I just set it down, it can't have just gotten up and walked away."

"Don't worry dear, we'll find it."

We started walking around in circles, going further and further, but my pumpkin was nowhere in sight. I leaned back, frowning, before a flash of hot pink passed by in the corner of my eye. I whirled around in time to see my pumpkin vanishing into a rose bush. Must have just been rolling away this whole time.

I walked over, leaning down on all fours and peering into the rose bush. The leaves hid everything from view, the light seemingly swallowed once they touched the greenery. I reached in, flinching as I carefully brushed past rows of sharp thorns, pulling a few branches apart and looking in.

"There you are!" I said, spotting the pumpkin.

It had rolled in, safely stopping at the base of the bush. Huh, it hadn't even gotten scraped up by the thorns. I was reaching in to grab it when I frowned, suddenly noticing the flickering violet light shining around in the bush. Weird. The pumpkin was hot to the touch as I reached for it, and I nearly hurled it into the air with my initial grab, it was so light now. I frowned and turned it around, staring at it, only to nearly drop it again.

The pumpkin had been carved. A mournful, terrified version of my own face screamed up at me, a violet flame burning inside. A strange cross like symbol was carved just to the left, along with the name Club XIII. What the hell?

"Oh you found it! Wonderful, now we can head back in. Are you alright Kairi?"

I turned the pumpkin over and showed it to Aerith.

"What in the world…?" She muttered.

"I just found it like this, it was in the bush and-"

I froze. When I had turned back to point at said bush, it hadn't been there. An unnatural hole in the earth and a few dead petals were all that remained to even hint that anything had ever been there.

"My roses!" Aerith cried, whirling around, eyes scanning the area desperately. The intercom suddenly cackled to life overhead, a strange, elegant tone ringing through the building.

"So you enjoy scaring innocent victims with their worst nightmares? What a coincidence, so do i. You really should have feared XIII, you might have lived longer Kairi."

My heart hopped into my throat as they spoke my name, wordless terror starting to blossom in me. Aerith's wide eyes narrowed and she shouted at the intercoms, almost as though she expected an answer.

"Now see here, I told you to leave, I'm calling the authorities!"

She grabbed my arm and quickly worked our way back to the greenhouse.

"What a beautiful flower you are. So tall, so proud, so narcissistic, so, so stupid. You really are obsessed with your appearance aren't you? Let's have a little fun, shall we?"

Aerith abandoned me at the door, rushing to the phone, dialing a few times, before trying again, and again.

"The lines out. Use your cellphone."

I snapped out of my daze, shaking as I reached into my purse. That's when my pumpkin suddenly sprouted stubby leg like roots and sprang from my arms, dashing out the door. My jaw dropped as we started at the gourd, watching until it dashed out of sight.

"Did that pumpkin just…?"

No, I couldn't even finish that sentence, this wasn't possible. Right? A strange cracking, rustling noise started, growing louder and louder.

"What in the world is going on!?" Aerith shouted, moving closer to me.

And that's when the missing rose bush decided to reappear. It charged towards the greenhouse doors, tangled roots flying over the stone path, before pouncing, digging into the hard cements and plunging its roots into the ground. Aerith and I screamed as the bush grew, thorns bulging into daggers, branches flailing and tangling, waving back and forth. But the worst part were the roses themselves. I had found the Venus fly traps.

The roses were full of teeth, snapping angrily at the air, blindly searching for their next meal. I screamed again as a branch snapped towards me, Aerith dragging me out of the way just in time to avoid being skewered. We ran to the back of the greenhouse, screaming and shouting, the branches twisting and coiling after us. One managed to snag Aerith by the heel, and she went down with a thud, the branches quickly trying to claim their prize.

"Help me!" She shouted, desperately latching onto a table leg while the branch continued tugging her towards the hungry roses.

I shook, trembling as I whirled around, trying to find a way to help. Hedge trimmers! I wrenched them from their shelf and charged back to Aerith, severing a fistful of branches. They writhed in agony as I helped Aerith to her feet, and then the two of us were dashing to the back of the building. Aerith threw a flowerpot through he back window, diving out as a vine snapped at her.

Another branch grabbed me, but I managed to slice it, yelping as some of the thorns bit into me. Aerith and I escaped, and charged towards the exit, but we hadn't even made it halfway there when another bush dash into sight. We swerved and course corrected, following the trail.

"Run all you want, you cannot escape your fate."

We could see the families up again, looking concerned and irritated.

"What's going on? What's with the freak on the speakers?" The asked.

"Just run, they're after us!" I shouted, trying to pull them away to safety.

"What's after you?"

"The plants!" Aerith exclaimed.

The kids screamed in terror and the adults glared at us, trying to calm their children.

"Don't you think you're taking this a little too far?" An angry parent demanded.

"No you don't understand first it was my pumpkin-"

"And then it came alive and ran away-"

"And then the rose bush tried to get us-"

"But we managed to get away, and they're right behind us, and…"

Aerith and I trailed off, realizing how crazy we sounded. It didn't exactly help that when we looked back, there was a stunning lack of any evil, flesh hungry rose bushes.

"Must be some pathetic publicity stunt." Another man muttered, starting to usher his family towards the exit.

"Disgraceful!" Another concurred.

"Wait, please you have to understand-" Aerith never got a chance to finish. Screams erupted as a hedge, carefully trimmed to look like an elephant, raised its trunk and let out a creaking war cry, leading a charge of flailing rosebushes against us.

People desperately tried to get away but they never had a chance, the elephant cut off any escape as they bushes charged forward, branches snagging anything that moved. I screeched as they encircled us, trying to slice off the branches only to have one snatch the trimmers away, snapping them in two. People were vanishing into he bushes, they were screaming, something was buzzing, and I was crying and screaming. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think.

I was about to get eaten by plants, what had I done to deserve this? The branches converged on me, swallowing up everything but my head, pulling me until I collapsed onto the ground, slowly being dragged into one of the bushes.

"Please, no!"

I writhed, struggling, but the branches just tightened their hold.

"Oh this is fun, he was right."

I snapped my head up, seeing the black cloaked figure again, standing over me.

"Please, let me go! What did I ever do to you? Please help me!" I blubbered, sobs and fear stealing all coherent thought. He figure pulled back their hood, and Marluxia smiled down at me, eyes gleaming wickedly. He knelt down, curling a few locks of my hair while I babble and pleaded.

"Such pretty petals. Such a shame. You really should be careful who you cross. Alas, you reap what you sow. Enjoy the fruits of you labor Kairi." The branches sucked me in and I screamed, feeling the roses snapping at me with fleshy teeth. And then I was inside.

I was breathing hard, still screaming, when I realized there weren't any thorns of roses in here. But there was a strange light, and that buzzing sound was louder than ever now. Wait, strange light? Oh on. My pumpkin came back into view, violet light shining in its glory.

It was safely clinging to the inside of the bush, flames flickering madly inside of it. The carving of my face had changed, it sneered at me with a toothy grin, eyes wide and psychotic. It dropped onto my chest, the thing making all the buzzing noise coiled in one of its finger like vines.

I screamed and screeched as it came closer and closer to my face. It leaned right up to me, the violet flame burning my retinas, the smoke filling my lungs, its hard skin pushed up against mine. And then everything went black.

* * *

><p>"Kairi!"<p>

My eyes snapped open and I sat up, screaming. Aerith wrapped her arms around me, patting my back saying "It's alright, it's okay, no one can hurt us now, they're gone."

"Wh-what happened?" I stuttered, sitting up and struggling to get my breathing under control. Motionless, uprooted plants surrounded us, and I could see the others of our group talking to a policeman not far off.

"Apparently we were victim to a prank. They ruined our garden, traumatized us and worse, and its all entirely legal, we can't do anything against them."

"W-w-who?"

"Them." Aerith pointed up towards the ceiling.

I glanced up, seeing a huge banner, wrapping around the ceiling. It could be seen from miles around now, the roof probably even made it easier to read. In huge, elegant print was written "We were pranked by Club XIII! Come visit the club tonight for a spectacular Halloween Treat!"

"This was all some kind of joke? Some kind of sick prank? What about the kids, what about us, what about…" I trailed off, staring at Aerith in shock "Aerith, you're bald."

Her bald head gleamed in the sunlight now, gorgeous locks gone. Aerith glanced sorrowfully up, before glancing around at the group. I shivered as a cool breeze went by overhead, glancing back at the others with her. Everyone was bald, domes shining and polished. Wait, the breeze; the thing in the pumpkins vines, it had been hair clippers! Oh no… My heart stopped as realization dawned on me. I looked up, praying to everything good and decent in the world. I couldn't see my hair. I frantically reached up, panicking when all I found was smooth skin. I think I handled it all pretty calmly.

I only screamed once, and after all, it was only for about a minute and a half. Aerith did her best to calm me, but I couldn't stop screaming. This was one of my worst nightmares, how was I supposed to go out in public now? What was Riku going to think?

"Oh my gosh Kairi!"

Naminé rushed into my field of view, kneeling down eyes wide. If I hadn't been so hysterical I might have asked why she looked so blurry, as though she had rolled around in glitter, been spray painted, and then lightly misted. But I really didn't care, I was still screaming.

"What happened to you…?" She trailed off, staring at my chest, before solemnly whispering. "They got you too."

She pointed to her shirt, a strange skin tight t-shirt. I glanced down. My blouse was gone, and I was trapped in a black and silver piece just like hers. The Roman numeral XI was scrawled in the center, along with the sentence "Found guilty of consorting with the enemy. Found Guilty on all accounts."

"Kairi your hair… I'm so sorry."

"They got you too?"

Naminé nodded. My phone went off, and we both squealed, only to nervously laugh at the awkward glances we received before pulling out my phone. It was Sora.

I threw it on speaker saying "Oh, thank goodness, Sora I need you right now, Naminé and I were just-"

"Need your help!" Sora's voice cut in.

I frowned, watching as my phone tried to keep the connection up, noting the panic in Sora's voice.

"Sora? What's up?"

"It's Roxas he's… kidnapped… lost them… don't know… freaking out… what should I do…"

And then the line disconnected. Naminé and I exchanged glances.

"Did he just say Roxas was kidnapped?"

x-X-x

"Such a shame, she was so beautiful." Marluxia mourned, falling into a booth beside me.

"You donated all the hair right?"

Kairi would be proud to know her hair, along with everyone else's, would be helping cancer patients around the globe. Or maybe not. Either way, it was a fitting punishment for a beauty queen.

"Of course. Oh, you should have seen the expression on her face, it was truly priceless!"

I grinned. I could picture it all too well.

"And how did your little escapade go?"

I shrugged, unwrapping my bandages. "It worked perfectly. Honestly, it was like taking candy from a baby."

Marluxia chuckled before throwing himself back up.

"I hate to report and dash, but I managed to convince Lexaeus to go for a quickie in the dressing rooms, and I don't want to be late. I swear with him on top it's like having a fire hydrant shoved up my-"

"Too much info Marly!"

Marluxia just shook his head, giggling. "If you say so. But if you ever want to try a real man, you know where to look."

"Where's Xemnas and Larxene? Xemnas is up next and I haven't seen him all day."

Marluxia glanced back over his shoulder, shrugging. "Xemnas left a while ago, he had to pick some stuff up to take care of that brat nephew of his. And Larxene left right after she picked Aqua this morning, something about settling a score from back in high school."

Oh that was going to be a fun one, Aqua vs Larxene. But right now Vanitas was about to get a _fun_ visit form his uncle.

* * *

><p><strong>One more down, eleven more to go! Here come the next few, happy Halloween, enjoy the screams! <strong>


	4. 2 PM-Vanitas

**Disclaimer; Is Roxas the main character? Was Riku eaten by Monstro and lost forever? Is Roxas in a relationship with Sora or Namine? Then no, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. **

* * *

><p><strong>Warning, slightly mature, language warning, nothing big<strong>

**2 P.M. Vanitas**

Beep, beep, beep.

I growled, pushing my head under my pillow. Stupid alarm clock.

Beep, beep, beep.

Gah, I hadn't gotten any sleep last night. Ventus had been up, whining and whimpering over his brother. So he forgot about Roxy's childhood trauma, who cares? Roxas was a big boy. It wasn't like he was going to explode or anything, just give him a little time and he'll be right as rain. Besides, who could hate such a killer prank? It had been pretty awesome, especially coming from a doofus like Sora.

Beep, beep, beep.

I growled agitatedly, reaching under my bed and pulling out a hammer.

Beep, beep, be- Smash!

I sighed contentedly, listening to the pieces clattering to the floor. Music to my ears. What kind of stupid alarm clock woke you up before three in the afternoon anyways? I'd have to get Ven to stop messing with it when he slept over. Then again, when he came, I was perfectly fine with getting up early. Over here at my house there weren't any stupid baby monitors listening to our ever more, or any vengeful big brothers who tried to castrate me every chance they got.

Over here Ven and I could have all the _fun _we wanted. Oh man, and the fun things we had done yesterday before Sora screwed up with his twin. I smiled, remembering Ven's red face, the sweet whining noises he made, that adorable look as he scrunched up his face, screaming my name. Damn I love him so much.

Now if only I could work out a threesome between his twin, my life would finally be complete. Christmas hadn't really worked out, what with their house being trashed, Roxas running off and getting mild hypothermia, and Cloud trying to shove a bat in me, and not in the fun way.

So this time it had to all work out, right? My phone rang, and I groaned, pulling it up to my ear.

"Unless you're my blonde haired blue eyed sub who likes it rough, I'm busy."

"I will keep that in mind for your next birthday Vanitas."

I sat up in bed, eyes wide, self-consciously giving myself a check over. I knew that voice all too well. There are only three people in the world who both scare the hell out of me and have earned my respect. They were my boyfriend, Ventus, my grandpa, Xehanort, and my uncle, Xemnas, in that order. And right now, my uncle was using his all business tone. Not that you could ever really hear the difference.

"Uncle Xemnas? Um… What's up sir?"

"I have a job for you, get to the plaza, preferably in the next five minutes."

Five minutes!

"I can't get there in five minutes, I'd be lucky to be there in half an hour!"

"Then I suggest you hurry. Clean yourself up and do not disappoint me Vanitas."

And then he hung up.

I was out of bed, dressed, cleaned up, and out the door in ten seconds flat, hopping onto my motorcycle, giving the engine a good rev before blasting down the street. Like I said, there were three people I obeyed without hesitation, and if one of them was ordering me to get my butt down to the plaza now, I was there, even if I wanted to punch them in the face.

I screeched into a parking spot, turning off the engine and racing off, charging into the fray. The Destiney Islands were having a "Haunted Half-Off Sale Market" (Lame, I know) selling last minute candy, costumes pieces, tools, and other useless knick-knacks. I rushed over to where Xemnas was, skidding to a halt next to a booth, advertising his new business, Club XIII. The place was actually pretty bad ass, I'd have to sneak Ven in sometime.

"You are late."

I shrugged irritably, "I got here as fast as I could. What do you need?"

"Eye candy. I already have workers out here promoting the club, I need some eye candy to complete it all. Here is your new uniform, go change and hurry back for your instructions." Xemnas held out a bag, waiting.

"But Xemnas, I was planning on seeing my boyfriend, he's kind of out of it."

"Now Vanitas."

I growled, snatching the bag out of his outstretched hand and stomping off to a bathroom. I walked into a stall, shredding my clothes and pulling out my cellphone. I called Ven, impatiently waiting as it rang, before finally let out a shrill mechanical click. Ven's voice came to life, cheerfully exclaiming "_Hey its Ventus, sorry I missed you! I'll get back to you soon, and you know what to do at the beep! Beep!"_ He laughed, and the phone beeped.

"Hey Ven, it's me. Listen, Xemnas has me doing some gig out at the plaza, so you'll have to cope on your own. Try not to do anything stupid again while I'm out." I paused for a second before sighing. "And Ven? Don't beat yourself up, you forgot, he'll get over it. You're not a bad guy, and speaking from experience, we all screw up sometimes. Love you."

So yeah, if anyone ever finds out I'm a softie for Ven, I am so totally screwed. But then again, if anyone tries to snitch on me, then they'll be screwed when I get my hands on them. I reached into the bag for my new uniform, frowning when I only found one article of clothing. I pulled it out, only finding a black and red speedo. It was covered in white and grey thorns, along with a Roman numeral I, the word 'Club XIII' spread across my left cheek. On the front was written "Guilty on charges of high treason, adultery, and harassment." Weird. So Xemnas wasn't kidding when he meant eye candy. Ah well, chilly weather or not, it'd be fun to show off my body in front of other people.

My stall door suddenly clicked open behind me, and I frowned, starting to turn around. I had enough time to see something black in the corner of my eye before someone grabbed me and pushed a cloth over my face. I resisted the urge to breath, using that split second to struggle and flail, elbowing my attacker in the ribs. And then they smacked down hard on my neck. I gasped in pain, breathing in whatever was in the cloth. And then everything was black.

* * *

><p>"Vanitas, get out here now, we have business to attend to."<p>

I moaned, rolling up into an uncomfortable ball. Why was my bed so hard? And what was that smell?

"Vanitas!"

"Ung, five more minutes…" I said, turning over. My head slammed into something hard and cold, and I recoiled, opening my eyes blurrily. Why was there a toilet in my bed? I sat up, head spinning, realizing I was on the floor of a bathroom. How the hell had I gotten here?

"I am not happy right now Vanitas. Hurry up and get out here."

Wait that was Xemnas. Everything came rushing back to me, and I stumbled to my feet, whirling around. My stall was closed, and apart from feeling strangely numb, I was the same as ever. I was already in my speedo, skin pale and perfect, muscles bulging and hard. Huh, must have had some sort of dizzy spell. Weird.

"I'll be right out Xemnas." I said, leaning down to stuff my old clothes back in my bag. I flinched, swearing as I felt sharp pain in my crotch. "What the freak?"

"Vanitas." Xemnas said, a warning tone laced in his voice.

"I'm coming. Sheesh, hold your horses." I ignored the pain, grabbing my bag and walking back out of the stall, seeing Xemnas standing at the door.

"I only require you until five, after which you may go anywhere you please. In the meantime, I expect you to stay in the plaza, hand out fliers, and send people over to the kiosk. You know our target audience, here are your fliers, now go."

"Hey, do I get paid for this at least?" I asked, walking out the door.

Xemnas just smiled, adjusting his pitch black suit.

"No. This is part of your punishment, the easy part actually."

"My punishment? What are you talking about?"

Xemnas ignored my question and walked off, heading for the kiosk.

I stared after him, confused, before shrugging and sauntering over to a group of teens, grinning and offering them a flier.

I might have had a little too much fun, I was all too happy to show off my body to potential customers. The girls blushed and cooed over me, while the guys glared. Well, most of them anyways, I'm pretty sure I saw one drooling. I made sure to slab his butt as I walked away, winking before making my way around the plaza, offering newcomers the handouts.

Things were pretty dull around here the next few hours, almost nothing happened. I got a weird voicemail from Sora, something about people in black cloaks, Roxas, and freaking out, but I just ignored it.

The most exciting part of my day was when I ended up punching a few jealous boyfriends. When the police had shown up, I had just smiled, flirted very successfully, and then mentioned that my uncle was Xemnas and that my grandpa was Xehanort. Having two VIP's directly related to you can be pretty helpful, and nowadays on the island I didn't even need their names to have that much pull, my own reputation had a tendency to proceed me.

It was almost four when a familiar voice came said "If Xemnas had mentioned he had another boy toy like you working the plaza I might have stopped by earlier."

I glanced back to find Roxas leaning up against a wall, eyes bright and slightly crazed. His hair was a mess, and that was saying something considering how it usually looked, but the main reason I think my jaw dropped was his own speedo, a blue, black, and silver thing, with a strange cross symbol, showing off some very nice assets.

He was the definitely the more dominating of the twins. He had more muscle tone than Ven, he was definitely crazier, his own package looked a little bigger than his brothers, and from speaking to Sora I knew that he could be a downright ferocious lover when he wanted to be. Damn twins, why did they have to be so hot?

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Damn Roxy, not too bad, not bad at all."

Roxas winked at me, giving a cocky twirl so I could admire him from every angle, before slowly coming forward.

"You're not too bad yourself Vani."

He put his hands on my chest, pushing my skin, smiling up at me. Ah hell, he had the same effect as Ven, I could feel the blood leaving my head. I flinched suddenly, the blood not going where it was supposed to. The pain in my crotch came back and I frowned, wondering what was going on.

"Something wrong?"

I shook my head, trying to get back in the zone.

"I'm fine. What about you, last I heard you were still freaking out over last night, and now you're out here. How did Xemnas rope you into this anyways?"

"Oh that? I made the cut, I'm the thirteenth member, Club XIII and all that jazz. I thought it'd be fun to try this out, and everyone seemed to agree. They said I have some great _assets_ for the job."

I nodded mutely as he propelled me up against a wall, trying to concentrate. I still had enough sense to recognize how he completely skipped over the pat about him freaking out, but it was quickly fading. I was great at keeping my cool when I used to date, still was most of the time. But whenever Ven came into the picture, or Roxas I guess now too, all conscious thought and control went out the window.

"I can see it, believe me. You better be careful, if Sora see's you like this he'll probably have a heart attack."

"Sounds like fun." He replied winking.

"Definitely. You should let Ventus in on your workout routine, he'd appreciate it, and I know I most certainly would."

Roxas hummed, letting his hands trail over me.

"You wanna know what else sounds fun?"

"What?"

"You, Ven, and I, just like you wanted."

My brain must have malfunctioned, there was no way he had really just said what I think he did. Right?

"What?"

"You heard me." He whispered, grinding up against me.

He giggled when I moaned, saying "Huh, same as Sora."

Sora? Who? Oh right, Sora. "What about Sora? What do you think he'll think? Not that I mind, I'm all up for this."

"I'm sure Sora will understand in the end." He whispered in my ear.

Did I mention I really have a thing for twins? Yeah, Sora would hate me if he ever found out, and Cloud would have one more reason to try and kill me, but who cared about that?

"How about we go for a quick test run before we go get Ven?"

"Oh hell yeah."

This didn't count as cheating on my boyfriend, right? No, and besides Ven had already admitted to having been randomly kissed earlier in our relationship, that counted as him cheating, so this was just evening things up.

Roxas leaned up, our lips crashing together, and he moaned as I switched places, slamming him against a wall and pushing hard against him. Somehow we made our way to the bathrooms, and Roxas started moving his way down, leaving a trail of kisses down my chest, before coming to his knees.

"Let's have some fun." Roxas said with a wink.

Something in my head sparked to life when he said that, some danger sign pointing out that this wasn't how Roxas acted, trying to make me think about the crazed look that was still in his eyes. Guilt dug at me as I stared into those blue eyes, thinking of Ven. No, if I was going to do anything with Roxas I had to have Ven's okay. Yeah, he has me whipped, I'm not the old me. But I really don't care, he's mine and I'm not going to lose him because I was a horny idiot.

"Roxas, stop." I began, reaching down to push him away.

Roxas pulled down my speedo, and we both froze, staring at my crotch, before Roxas glanced up, raising his eyebrows.

"That kind of puts a damper on the mood."

"What the fuck!?"

There was nothing down there. It was all smooth, except for a strange scar, which had been expertly stitched and cleaned. I don't think I really understood what was going on, I couldn't think. There was no way this was really happening to me, right?

"So… yeah, if this is all you've got I'm not really interested, I'm going to get back to work."

Roxas stood up to leave.

"What the hell happened? Dude there's nothing there, it's gone!"

"You can say that again."

Wait! The memory of someone breaking into my stall came back, and my breath caught, still somewhere between terror and rage. I had just been castrated, who the hell did this, why?! Cloud, the bastard must have come after me. No, no, no! I fell back against the wall, staring down. Oh my god, why? Maybe they could reattach everything, right?

Oh god, what was I going to do? What was Ventus going to do? How the hell was I supposed to have sex? Once he found out, I'd be dumped. No one wanted to be with a guy who didn't have anything down there. My heart was going too fast, I couldn't breathe. My phone suddenly beeped, and I mutely picked it up, seeing a text from Ven.

"_Thanks Ven, it means a lot 3 I'm coming by the plaza, you made me feel better, maybe I can return the favor ;)_"

Ah crap, Ventus was coming here? No! I couldn't let him see me like this! I couldn't let me see myself like this! I had to hunt down Cloud, there had to be a way to fix this. Right? I whimpered, pain rippling through me. A man walked in, eyes widening as he say me.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer!" I shouted.

I pulled my speedo back up and dashed out of the bathroom. I had to find Cloud, get my equipment back, get to a hospital, and the kill Cloud. I dashed past the kiosk where Xemnas and Roxas were chatting, dashing away. There was a way to fix this. There had to be.

x-X-x

"I have to say, whoever you had do the work was amazing Xemnas."

Xemnas shrugged, carefully arranging his pile of fliers.

"I have connections in the art industry. It turns out Vanitas slept with an old friend's daughter, and they were more than happy to help me create that little chastity belt for him."

"It looked so realistic, if I hadn't known any better I would have sworn you really did cut everything off."

"If only. Perhaps that would make him more agreeable in the future. I must say Roxas, you were right this revenge idea has been fun."

"Sorry this one wasn't as public as the others have been." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Xemnas waved it away. "Vanitas' punishment was just for fun, he served a better purpose drawing in customers. What with the others, everything will soon be in place. Our shift is almost up, once we take this down we will head back and finish construction on your masterpiece."

I giggled gleefully. It was just a quarter past four, and now I had four people with revenge taken care of. Wait, there was Lexaeus coming towards me, wiping off red face paint. I guess that makes five now. Eight left. I giggled again, thinking about the main prize. I'm coming for you Sora.

Soon.

* * *

><p><strong>Just a few more, hope you're liking, hope you're having a spooky Halloween!<strong>


	5. 3 PM-Aqua

**Disclaimer****; I do not own the rights to Kingdom Hearts, but I'm hoping they'll give it out with the candy this year**

* * *

><p><strong>3 P.M. Aqua <strong>(7 A.M.)

"I love you too mom, I can't wait till you get back in town."

"Just one more week and your father and I will be back home. Now I know Halloween is tonight, but I expect you to be a responsible young lady. No wild parties, no boyfriends staying over, no alcohol, and you are to be home by eleven."

"I know mom. Listen, I've gotta go for my run, I'll talk to you later."

"Alright honey, stay safe, have a great Halloween!"

"You too. Tell dad I love him."

I hung up and sighed, settling my phone down and trying my shoes. In by eleven tonight? That didn't leave much time for fun, I wouldn't even be able to have a good date with Terra. Oh well, I might just break curfew by a little. It was the weekend after all, I'm sure my parents wouldn't' die if they found out. I finished tying my shoes and hopped up, jogging out the door.

Before, tonight's plans had been to hang out at Sora's house with the gang together watching scary movies, eating candy, partying, and having a ball. But that plan seemingly fell apart after Sora's prank took a dark turn last night. I don't think I've ever seen two people look so broken, it hurt my heart just to think about the way Roxas and Sora had been.

Last I saw, Sora was still sitting outside his door, refusing to give up on the love of his life. I upped my pace, pushing myself harder as I passed the park. What was going to happen now? Sora was probably still trying to fix things with Roxas, so that idea was down the drain. Maybe I could stop by and try to help them, I could try and get through to Roxas if I tried.

I was in town now, the sun was just starting to crest over the horizon. Yes, that's what I would do. Once I came home, cleaned up, and got in costume, I would head back out to try and reconcile the two, and then go out with Terra and get the party started for everyone. Maybe we could salvage this party yet.

I turned down an alley, meaning to take a shortcut to Main Street, only to skid to a halt, nearly running into someone. I backed up, eyes widening as I took in the black cloaked figure in front of me. They were a few inches shorter than me, face masked in shadow.

"Sorry about that." I said cheerfully, mentally checking my pockets for a rape whistle.

Sure it was Halloween, but you could never be too careful around here.

"Aqua."

I took another step back, trying to recognize the voice. It was definitely feminine, and it sounded eerily familiar, but I couldn't place it, not without a face to connect it to.

"Yeah that's me. Can I help you?"

Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt.

They giggle maniacally saying "Oh that's rich, really, that's just perfect. You help me?"

They broke down laughing and I frowned, fist clenching, ready to stand up for myself if necessary.

"Do I know you?"

The girl stopped laughing, cloak snapping up and despite the shadows, I knew she was glaring at me.

"Yes you do, and you're going to regret it soon. You want to help me? Mind stepping a foot to the right?"

"Who are you?"

The girl sighed irritably, leaning back and putting her hands on her hips.

"You know who I am. But right now that's not important. You helped that jerk break our newbie. For hurting the shrimp, humiliating me, and being an aver all skank, I pronounce you guilty, blah, blah, blah, face the punishment, blah, blah, blah, and all that jazz. You might want to look up."

What was she going on about? No matter what, this was getting really uncomfortable. I wanted this to stop.

"Listen up, I-"

The figure cackled, pointing a gloved finger at the sky. The air suddenly flared with the scent of ozone, and I grimaced, glancing away from the weirdo against my better judgment. I saw a flash of light splitting the sky, coming down before my world exploded in light, and everything went black.

* * *

><p>"Ungh…" I groaned, rolling over, limbs stiff and sore. What happened to me? Where was I? My mind was fuzzy at best, bits and pieces slowly coming together. I remembered running into the alley, my confrontation with the hooded stranger and I remember looking up, seeing that burst of light coming down on me.<p>

Had I been struck by lightning? I check myself over, not seeing any bruises, marks, or blood. Strange. It took another few seconds before my mind came to the realization that I was in a different running shirt.

It was the same material as my old attire, but the colors had changed, strange, thorny vines entwining all around, along with a strange cross like symbol right below my neckline. The Roman numeral XII was scratched in angry scrawl along with the words "Guilty as sin, she deserved what she got!"

"What the?" I frowned, pushing shakily to my feet.

There wasn't any sign of the girl or my old shirt. So, I had been threatened, struck by lightning, and mugged? Stranger things had happened, I guess. Maybe I should talk to Leon, he was a police officer after all. He would know what to do.

I started home, swearing to take my phone on runs with me from now on. My limbs were angrily protesting as I finally threw open the door, heaving and panting. I made my way to the phone, dialing Leon.

"Officer Leonhart here."

"Hey Leon." I gasped, trying to remember how to breathe.

"Aqua? Are you alright, you sound out of breath."

"Just got back from a run. Listen, I need your advice."

I explained the events that had taken place, before Leong agreed with me, saying that we should check things out.

"It was the alley between Main Street and Lady Luck right? Alright, I'll meet you there so we can talk. Don't clean up, you might have evidence on you and not even know it."

Five minutes later I was back in the alley, my breathing finally starting to level out.

"Morning Aqua." Leon said as he walked up, uniform freshly pressed and cleaned.

"Good morning Leon."

"So this is where it all happened?"

I nodded.

"Alright, let's see if I have this right. At 7:35, you came around the corner, and encountered our suspect. They were standing over there, in the center of the alley, and you were right here, backing up fast."

I confirmed the story with another nod.

"Our suspect makes some threatening remarks, points at the sky, and then… you get hit by lightning."

He gave me a skeptical look.

"I know it's farfetched. All I know is that the air smelled all tangy, like it always does before a lightning strike, I looked up, and then there was a flash of light. The next thing I knew, I woke up nearly half an hour later. It could have been something else, I'm just telling you what I remember."

Leon nodded, before motioning at me saying "And that's the clothing you woke up in?"

I nodded, and he slowly circled me, before finally coming back in to face me.

"Are you familiar with Club XIII at all?"

Club XIII?

"It sounds familiar, but I can't remember it for the life of me."

"They're a new club downtown. Point being, their logo's on the back of your shirt. Whoever did this either was their recently or had access to their materials. I'm not sure though, I haven't seen any merchandise like that the last few times I was in the area."

"So, what do we do?"

"I'll call in a few people, but we don't exactly have much to go on Aqua. As far as you and I can tell you're in perfect shape. If we found the perp, we could go after them for threatening you or possibly theft, but I don't know."

I sighed closing my eyes.

_Normally I wouldn't believe a word of this, especially if the victim was claiming to have been hit by lightning, but it is Aqua after all, she's not going to be pulling some juvenile prank. _

"I would hope not. Thanks for the faith in me." I said smiling.

Leon frowned. "What?"

"You said you had faith that I wouldn't' be pulling some prank."

"Aqua, all I said was that we didn't have much to go on."

_Strange, wonder where she got that._

"I got it because you said it, why?"

"Said what?"

"It's not strange, you were just talking to me."

Leon stared at me in confusion.

What the heck?

_I must be thinking out loud again. Cloud was right, maybe I needed a break after all. _

"You feeling alright Aqua?"

_She looks out of it, pretty pale and shaky. Maybe I should get her out of here._

His lips hadn't moved when he talked. No, this wasn't what I thought it was. Right?

"Leon, did you just say something about Cloud?

_Cloud? Huh, I really must be thinking out loud. I really need to stop pulling all these extra shifts._

"No, I didn't. Aqua, are you okay?"

No way. Was I hearing his thoughts? No, that wasn't possible. Right?

_I should really get her lying down, I think she might have cracked under the stress. _

"I didn't crack, I'm fine, really."

Leon raised his eyebrows, looking baffled.

"What are you talking about? Aqua-"

"Listen, I'm going to get going, you were right, there's nothing we can do. Thanks for your help."

I dashed off, mind reeling. Telepathy? Impossible, I must just be in shock from this morning.

_Oh look its Aqua. Huh, little late on her morning jog, usually I miss her. _

I glanced around, before seeing Olette out of the corner of my eyes. She waved and I waved back, dazed. No way. This couldn't happen, it wasn't scientifically possible. Then again, some studies had been done, testing the brains abilities when electrocuted. Theories about ESP, telepathy, and telekinesis had been shown, the possibilities growing with greater voltage. But that wasn't real. Wasn't it?

_Huh, she looks a little pale, maybe she's sick._

"You okay? Usually you're already a mile ahead, on your third lap around the island." Olette shouted from across the street, beaming happily.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." I said shakily.

_If you say so._

"Okay the, I'll be seeing you later tonight."

I had telepathy. Oh this is amazing! I ran to the nearest store, flinging open the door. The shop keeper, a woman with white hair and a blue bonnet looked up saying "Welcome to the Bippity Boppity Halloween Boutique. How can I help you?"

_Oh it's Miss Aqua. Cinderella was telling me about her, their good friends I believe._

"Hey, have you seen a flying elephant going around?"

_Oh dear, perhaps it's a Halloween costume that ran off? Such things have a tendency to happen a lot around this time of year. _

"I can't say that I have dearie."

"Okay, thank you."

I charged out the door, smiling in delight.

I could read minds! This was incredible, think of things I could do now, the ways I could help people! I ran around for the next few hours, testing out my new ability. I helped solve a mix up at the grocers, helped find a little boy who had gotten lost, found out what was really in the mystery meat in the mall cafeteria, and so much more! Around three, I collapsed in a bench at the mall, exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time.

This had to be the best day ever, and now it could only get better.

_Hot damn she's got a hot bod. _

I frowned, glancing around for the thinker.

_Ungh, I hate people like that. What kind of person walks around all day in sweaty gym clothes, it's gross. _

Wait, hold on a second, who was that?

_Mommy said I can't get that toy! Maybe if I scream louder she'll change her mind!_

A child started screaming, and I flinched as the voices started getting louder.

_I need to get some more Chunk-O bars for the party tonight!_

_I wonder if Fuu will want to hook up again. _

_Hmmm, slutty nurse or slutty cat, decisions, decisions._

_I need some food, I swear I haven't eaten in days. _

_Not this story again, get over your boyfriend, he's a loser!_

_I miss Seifer, I miss our cuddle time._

_That is so totally true. _

_The cake is a lice, who wants fish fingers?_

_Two hundred bucks, what kind of chum do they think I am?_

I slapped my hands over my ears, trying to black out the voices, but they only got louder.

_I want my toy!_

_What a poser. _

_Lame, get a tan girl. _

_Oh shut up about your boyfriend already. _

_I'm such a slut._

_Timey Wimey!_

"Shut up!" I growled under my breath, trying to block it out. A crowd was gathering nearby, waiting for some kind of Halloween spectacular.

_I'm going to kill everybody here._

I frowned, the other voices going silent.

_A bomb in the stage, those stupid little sheep can just keep flocking up to it, come one, come all, come see the show and get blown up!_

I knew that voice, it was the girl who had threatened me this morning!

_One more minute and the show will start, and then everything will go boom._

No! I charged off the bench, racing for the crowd.

"Get back, there's a bomb!

Nobody heard me, they were all laughing and chatting, oblivious to the explosions that were about to commence.

"You have to listen to me, please!"

_What is that girl shouting about?_

_OMG look at that outfit, she's so totally ratchet._

_When's the show going to star?_

_Oh look its Aqua again. I should have fixed her up when I had the chance. Oh well, in a few more seconds it wouldn't matter. That's right everybody, head for the podium, just get a little closer._

Time to be a hero! I charged through the crowd, pushing people out of the way and leaping onto the stage, heading for the podium. I grabbed the microphone screaming "There's a bomb people, get out of here, run!"

The crowd stared up at me dumbly.

_No, she's going to ruin everything!_

"How do you know?" Someone asked, turning to their friend and saying "I bet you this is part of the show, did you see her shirt? She's one of the thirteen victims!"

Thirteen victims? What were they talking about? Why wasn't anyone panicking?

"I heard them thinking about it, now we have to go-"

"You heard them thinking it? What are you psychic?" The crowd was laughing.

"Please, the bomb!"

_Ten seconds left, you're too late Aqua._

Not if I had anything to say about it! I had seen enough movies to know that I might have just enough time to grab the bomb and get it out of here, at least if it was small enough. Please let this work!

"You have to run! I'm going to try and get it out of here!" I kneeled down, grabbing the small door below the microphone and throwing it open. There was a bang, and I stumbled back as pink overwhelmed my view, something wet and sticky blasting me away.

There were more bangs, and I felt something dusty and soft collide with me. I spluttered and stumbled down to the ground. What had just happened? The crowd went wild, cheering and laughing. I opened my eyes, only for pink liquid to get in them.

I blinked a lot, wiping away the strange liquid away from my eyes, looking around.

The podium had opened, revealing some kind of mechanical device, covered in pink. The liquid had spurted out, the explosions of color only hitting me and a cone around me. When I checked myself, I was covered in the pink stuff, along with glitter and confetti. What?

The crowd went wild, and I turned to see the cloaked figure sashaying onto the stage, waving to ecstatic crowd. They threw back their hood, revealing an all too familiar face; Larxene. She smiled sadistically, giving me a wink before grabbing the mike and saying "Thank you Traverse Mall fans! I love you too! Let's give a hand for our victim, the skank queen herself, Aqua!"

The crowd cheered, and Larxene turned back to me. What was going on? I can't feel myself going red, all the attention, all the laughing starting to get to me. My heart was starting to beat painfully fast, I was going numb

"Why?"

"You get what you get. Doesn't this all feel familiar skank?"

Skank? Oh…

I had pranked Larxene back in freshman year. My friends had pushed her into a shirt labeled 'Skank Queen' and setting off a paint bomb. Larxene had been furious, and I had been guilty enough to stay out of trouble after that time.

"Sure I could have gotten revenge you anytime, but then the shrimp told me about all your greatest fears. Still hearing people in your head?"

I couldn't hear anyone, I couldn't speak. So many people staring, laughing, pointing. Larxene giggle like a psychotic school girl, turning back to the crowd.

"Watch out who you cross, XIII's got all the power and we're not done yet. Happy Halloween Aqua."

I cried, fear finally giving me enough strength to charge off the stage and dash away.

x-X-x

"You should go into modeling shrimp, you've got the body for it. Add a few scars and you'd be edible. Believe me, I'd be happy to help you out."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm good Larx. I've got to go, Vanitas is in for a big surprise.

"Oh I bet he is." I said, walking up to the bar and slapping my hand down. "Get me a Lightning Rod Lexaeus, I'm in a good mood."

Lexaeus nodded, while Roxas slid into the seat next to me.

"You know prostitution is illegal Roxy!" Axel called from across the room, earning an angry blush from our near naked Roxas, while the rest of us laughed.

"Shut up flamesilocks, you're one to talk!" He turned back to me, face still red.

"And you're the one who's going to seduce Vanitas? Good luck with that."

"Shut up" He said, giving me a playful nudge "So how'd it go with Aqua?"

I pulled out my phone, bringing up a video of the beautiful events that had taken place.

"Oh her face is priceless!" Roxy exclaimed laughing.

"Oh yeah, revenge is so, so sweet. And that idea with the bomb, and the mind reading and the stage fright, it was bloody perfect! She was terrified! Who's next, I want to get front row seats."

"Then that drink will be to go." Lexaeus said, handing me a glass.

"Oh, who did you get?" I asked, gulping down the whole thing, my body tingling, throat burning.

"Terra." He said simply, walking towards the exit.

"Later Roxy, I'm going to go see the show!"

"Oi Roxas, is this high enough?"

Roxas glanced back to his piece de resistance taking in the quickly growing construction project.

"No, it needs to be a little higher, and you need to add more spikes. Make it grey to, I'll be right over."

I stared over at Roxas creation dreamily. This was going to be one hell of a Halloween. Sora wouldn't know what hit him.

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><p><strong>One more down! Hope you're enjoying, and have a hauntingly horrible Halloween!<strong>


	6. 4 PM-Terra

**Disclaimer; I have not yet conquered the world, and my intricate network of spies has failed to get me the rights to Kingdom Hearts**

* * *

><p><strong>4 P.M. Terra<strong>

Life is way too confusing I decided as I made my way down Main Street. All day friends had called me, complaining about pranks, being scared, bald, and worse. I had even seen Vanitas sprinting by in a speedo earlier, terrified and screaming.

It was not something I wanted to see again. Knowing that somebody like that was in an intimate relationship with my best friend was bad enough.

"Hey did you hear about the thirteen victims prank? They've shown four so far. I heard that the fifth is starting soon." Some kid said.

"Seriously! Epic, Club XIII's making a killing, I can't wait to get in there!"

Huh, wonder what all the fussing was about. My cell phone rang as I kept walking, a catchy love song calling for my attention; Aqua's ringtone.

"Hey love, what's-"

"Panic attack, pink paint, prank, too many people, Larxene, at my house-"

"I'll be right there." I said, cutting her off.

"Hurry."

Great, what was going on now? Aqua was prone to panic attacks every so often, something must have set her off. I better get over there, it sounded like some Halloween prank had gone wrong. My phone buzzed again, and I glanced down, the flashing blue light telling me I had a new text. Probably Aqua.

I frowned when I saw that it didn't have a number or contact with it, wondering if my phone was glitching again.

"You have been served, report to the court room of our esteemed judge within the next twenty seconds."

What? Must be a prank text. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and started crossing the street.

"The new one's starting! It's even got a video feed! Says the guy's name is Terra!"

I whirled around, seeing the teens standing around in front of a TV window. The screen was dominated by the name Club XIII, underneath a video feed, a count down from thirteen quickly going down. Below the rapidly declining numbers, my name flashed in bright lights. What the heck?

A hissing noise erupted from below me, and I looked down. Steam and smoke were hissing out from the manhole cover beneath my feet, flickering light peeking through the holes. A foul odor filled the air, something familiar, something wrong. Was that sulfur? The manhole rattle and the ground shook. Uh-oh.

Bounded away just as the manhole erupted, flying into the air, smashing into the ground a few feet away, flames and spoke ripping out of the earth's gaping maw. I watched in shock as a black cloaked figure arose from the flames, seemingly floating in the darkness. I tried to stand my ground, unused to having to look up to people. The figure easily towered over me, at least a foot taller, and a good deal wider and thicker. People screamed and ran while I stood there, petrified with indecision before the figure raised a gloved hand, pointing at me.

"Face your fate." They declared, their voice reminiscent to two mountains crashing into each other.

At that moment I had no more indecision. I had only one thought; run. I turned on my heel and managed to gain five feet before an iron grip caught be by the back of my neck, dragging me back and then down.

I yelled in rage and terror, trying to struggle to no avail. I landed hard, collapsing in a heap. I groaned, managing to roll to my feet, taking a defensive stance. The figure was gone. Flames and smoke swirled around the small space I was in, the sulfuric smell stronger than ever. I tried to look up to see the hole leading back up to the surface, but there was nothing. This was just the sewer right? I watched the fire flickering and swirling, trying to find an exit.

The room was dark, and blocked off. This wasn't a sewer. Dark, flickering light came into existence behind me, accompanied by the grating crunch of cement shattering, and I whirled around. Dark, cathedral-esque doors of jet stone had emerged from the shadows, the firelight flickering through its many stained glass windows. In the very center, a large cross like symbol stood, a pure grey symbol in an otherwise dark, fiery construct.

Subconsciously, my legs started taking me closer and closer, and before I knew what I was doing, I was raising my hand to touch the enormous handlers. I had a split second to realize that it was burning my fingers before the door slammed open and I stumbled forward.

Jeer, catcalls, and cheers erupted from the room, the flames growing brighter and torrid, the smoke filling my lungs. I looked around with wide eyes, taking in the scene. I was in a monumental room, a natural cave of sorts with tall stalactites and wicked looking stalagmites, fire burning out from the walls and up from the floor. Stone benches took up my half of the room, the front having only a huge, towering black stone throne and podium and a small, spiked seat facing away from the benches, towards the throne.

The benches were full of monsters. I'm not joking. Horned men, tentacle children, animal faced beings, cloven hoofed teens, winged women, and all other manner of foul beasts and creatures surrounded me, all pointing and staring at me. I was still reeling when two bulky creatures grabbed me from behind, dragging me up to the front of the room and throwing me in the spiked chair.

I struggled, punching one away and spinning to kick the other, but then more joined the fray, chaining me to the chair, growling, gnashing their teeth, and poking me with sharp claws and brutal tusks.

A petite little girl with bat wings flew up beside the dark throne, childlike voice calling out "Please rise for our benefactor, judge, jury, and executioner, the esteemed lord of our trial, V!"

The crowd cheered, going wild. And then all noise ceased. I looked around in confusion, jumping back when I saw that the previously empty throne was no longer empty. It was less than five feet away, and I hadn't even seen the occupant appear.

It was the black cloaked figure who had dragged me down her. They peered down at me from the shadows of their hood, their voice rumbling like thunder.

"The court recognizes the case of Hell vs Terra Leonhart. You stand accused of willful ignorance, consorting with the enemy, and overall high treason. How do you plead?"

"Guilty?" The crowd screamed, coming back to life.

I was being accused of a crime? In hell?

"Silence!" the figure- my judge- demanded.

They slammed an enormous gavel down, and the demons fell quiet again. The judge levelled his gavel down at me.

"How do you plead to the charges?"

"What's going on?" I demanded, struggling against my bonds.

"Bailiff! Enlighten the accused."

One of the demons who had bound me stepped forward, leering at me with yellow, crooked teeth.

"You betrayed the trust of a close friend, helped their arch-nemesis to harm them, and allowed their plan to come to fruition. For your crimes, you have been dragged down to a place where you belong. Isn't that right Terrance?"

My heart stopped.

Only four people knew my full name; my mother, my father, Leon, and Sora. Dad was long dead, Leon and Sora called me Terra, that's all they knew their younger and older brother by respectively. Terrance was what my mother had called me, my real name. She only said my full name when she was angry. The last time I had heard the name I was protection Leon while I dashed across the lawn with a crying Sora in my arms, my mother damning my two brothers to hell for their sexuality, swearing that if I, her only son the devil hadn't claimed, did not forsake my heathen brothers and come back, I would be in Hel with them in the end.

"The guilty party has been brought up to speed your bloodiness!" The bailiff exclaimed, stomping back to his spot. The judge turned back to me. My heart was racing as I stared up at them, blood as cold as ice.

"You know the charges. How do you plead?"

"N-Not guilty." I said, cursing myself for letting my fear out. This wasn't happening, I must have just hit my head. My mother's threats couldn't come true, I wasn't a bad person, and my brothers weren't abominations.

The crowd booed, throwing small rocks at me until the judge slammed his gavel down once more.

"Then let the jury review the evidence."

The judge sat back in the throne, folding their arms and letting their head droop down. The mob behind me whispered madly, and I started struggling again, fear activating adrenaline, giving me new strength. I managed to break free from one of my chairs, earning an outraged cries while the bailiffs did their best to restrain me.

I managed to get lose, my boxing training kicking in and striking the closest demon. Two tried to hold me back while the others came at me, I was about to wrench myself free when everything went silent, and the flames died out.

All sound stopped, our attention turning simultaneously to the judge. The behemoth of a being lifted his head and said one word.

"Guilty."

The mob broke into a frenzy, and demons crowded around, restraining me, pushing me to my knees and pulling my head up. I was forced to watch as the judge descended from his throne, slowly stomping towards me, each step shaking the earth.

The mob parted around him, making sure to give him a wide berth, staring expectantly from him to me.

When he stood directly in front of me, he pulled back his hood, revealing a blood red face with black markings, two horns poking out of his forehead under next, curly brown hair.

"For your crimes, I sentence you to death. I relieve you of your soul."

They grabbed my head, and I gasped, all the air suddenly rushing out of my lungs, my body tingling and numb. No! No, this was not happening! My brothers, they needed me! Aqua, Ventus, my friends! I couldn't die down here, I couldn't be in Hell. I didn't deserve this!

Terror was giving way to numbness, my vision was going dark. And just as suddenly as he had grabbed me, the judge let go. I gasped for air, head dropping. The crowd was eerily silent as they held me, attention no longer watching me.

When I finally had enough strength, I looked up. A smaller, also hooded was discussing something with the judge. They handed him something before turning on their heel and vanishing into the shadows. My heart was pounding so hard I was afraid it would pop right out of my chest, and I had broken into a cold sweat as the judge came back.

They held up the item the other had given them, revealing is was a small scroll.

"It appears to be your lucky day Terrance. It seems someone has argued in your defense. XIII has intervened via his most trusted warrior. Your sentence is hereby changed. You are allowed a parole of one year. If you commit another crime, you will not get off so easily."

They grabbed me again, even as the court erupted in angry boos, lifting me over his head as though I was lighter than a beach ball, before hurling met up at the ceiling with mind blowing speed. I screamed as I flew into the darkness, slamming into invisible rocky objects, before I saw the light.

I flew up a little higher, before coming crashing down. I groaned, pulling myself up slowly and getting back to my feet, wheezing. Parole? Alive? What had just happened?

I looked back at the ground, only seeing the empty manhole. There was no evidence of the court, there was nothing left of that forsaken place I had just left. Even the smell of sulfur was gone now. I was back in the real world. I glanced down when I felt smooth material on my chest, realizing that my shirt had changed. The fabric had grown dark, silver and gray vines crossed my back and arms. In the center of my chest, the Roman Numeral V was stamped, along with a single word.

Guilty.

x-X-x

"So how'd it go with Terra?

"The last I saw, he was gasping for breath after being forcibly ejected from Hell."

"Nice. I have to admit, I kind of feel bad, and that was a bad button to push…"

I raised an eyebrow and the blonde smirked.

"I did say kind of. Oh well, he pushed some bad buttons of his own. Want to give me a ride back to the club, this speedo's getting uncomfortable."

I nodded, leading the way back to my van. Xemnas was smiling contentedly as we left him at the kiosk, a large crowd surrounding him, congratulating the club on the pranks and asking for more.

"When we get back I need you to go help Lux, he's almost finished with the skyway."

I nodded gain, buckling up as Roxas hopped in. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Xigbar walking down the street, his favorite gun held in his arms.

"Should I be worried about that? I mean, he's not really going to hurt Leon, is he?"

I shrugged, starting the engine.

"He's Xigbar. Leon will get whatever he gets."

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><p><strong>Almost there, keep reading! Hope you're having a ghoulishly grisly Halloween!<strong>


	7. 5 PM-Leon

**Disclaimer; I don't have the rights to Kingdom Hearts. Or Godzilla. Or Borderlands. Or Infamous. When I get the rights to them though, I am going to make the MOST AMAZINGLY AWESOME, EPICALLY INCREDIBLE, AND UNNECESSARILY CAPITALIZED FANTASTICAL GAME EVER!  
><strong>

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><p><strong>5 P.M. Leon<strong>

Today was not a good day to be a police officer. I wished I could have realized last this morning when Aqua called and explained to me how she'd been struck by lightning. That should have been my tip off. If I had listened to my gut instinct, I would have stayed in bed with Cloud. Unfortunately, I had a job, and I still had to support my younger brothers.

And so I had gone out, and searched for Aqua. That was when I first heard about the figures in black cloaks. A girl had threatened Aqua, right before she got struck by lightning. I had brushed off the situation after she had started acting all crazy, failing to get her to go home and lie down.

The next time I heard about the cloaked figures was when the chief called, saying that we needed to get down to the Castle Oblivion Art Gallery ASAP. Apparently another black cloaked figure had arrived, bringing the art to life, terrorizing the citizens, and all for the sake of a prank.

I didn't know how it worked. All I knew was that when I heard that one of the victims, Naminè, was wearing a similar shirt to the one Aqua had woken up in, I knew that something was going on. I had tried to get in touch with Club XIII, the ones taking the credit for these pranks, intending to ask them to tone it down, but I hadn't been able to find anyone.

Barely an hour later, I got another call, this time to the Destiney Island Botanical Gardens. Kairi and Aerith were a victims this time, the plants ambushing everyone and shaving their heads. Club XIII's banner once again stood proud above the terror they had caused. Was this seriously all for some lame publicity stunt?

People were starting to look forward to the pranks, hoping for more. And that's when Club XIII finally released a statement. Two of the members, Luxord and Xemnas, had come on TV, explaining that to publicize the grand Halloween opening of the club, they were doing a series of thirteen scares. The thirteen victims as they were quickly christened, were all people who had wronged the clubs thirteenth member.

A little strange if you asked me, and definitely pushing the limits of the law. Thirteen targets, and three down. Club XIII published an online and on air list showing the victims already taken. Up first had been Naminè, then Kairi, Vanitas (So far no one knew what had been done to him, however I had heard rumors that he had been seen running around in a speedo, crying earlier. I'd have to look into that.), then Aqua.

I had tried to call her, but the boss called me off, putting me on patrol instead. Finally almost a half hour ago, Club XIII started a live video feed, showing Terra being dragged down into a movie set of Hell and being judged, before finally being ejected, and thrown back onto the street. By the time I got there to try and check on him, he was long gone.

I glanced at my clock worriedly, watching the time slowly tick away. It was 4:45. Apart from Vanitas, every prank so far had been started exactly thirteen minutes after the hour. There were eight victims left, and hundreds of people on the island, so many choices for Club XIII. They shouldn't be allowed to do this, it just wasn't right.

I sighed, leaning back in my sight as I came to a stop light. At the rate things were going I wouldn't get off of work until ten, most of the fun would be over by then. Being an adult sucked, really. I missed being a teenager, getting to hang out all night and party with Cloud.

Sure, without a dad I always had more responsibility than I should have, having to step up and be the man of the house for my mom and brothers. And yeah, it had only gotten worse after mom found out that Sora and I were in love with boys. But we were scraping by. Things were going to be okay.

Something flashed in the sunlight down the street, and I glanced around in time to see a black cloaked figure with a strange gun walking down an alley. Oh hell no, not in my town. The pranks were already pushing it, they weren't going to bring guns into this.

I turned down the street, parking just before the mouth of the alley and hopping out, drawing my own gun and advancing down the alley. I could see the figure now, still walking off towards the other end of the alley.

"DIPD, freeze!" I ordered, raising my gun.

The figure stop, turning back to me and taking a relaxed pose. I couldn't see their face, it was masked in shadows.

"Put down the gun, remove your hood, and put your hands in the air."

The cloaked figure slowly moved to set down the gun, only to suddenly turn and dash away. I cursed and ran after, tackling to the ground. Their gun clattered away, and I twisted their arm behind their back.

"Don't move if you know what's good for you. Running from a police officer? That's not going to look good for your boss. Now, you have the right to remain-"

I yelped, flinching as I felt a pain backside. I turned around, only to see another cloaked figure standing behind me, the gun raised, pointing down to where a large dart stuck out of my butt. I looked back to the figure I had tackled, ripping back its hood. It was a mannequin. How?

"Leon buddy…" A laid back voice said.

I turned back around, the world starting to go woozy.

The figure pulled back their hood, revealing one of the senior detectives of the precinct, Xigbar. He gave me a crooked smile, cocking his gun back.

"It's me, Xigbar. I shot you."

"Screw you." I managed to say, reaching for my gun. And then the world faded away, and I hit the ground hard. The last thing I heard was Xigbar laughing.

* * *

><p>"Yo, Squall, you want to wake up anytime soon?"<p>

I snapped up, instinctively reaching for my gun. What? Where? Who? I couldn't see anything, all I knew was that I was in an extremely small, dark space. I had barely enough room to sit up, banging my head up against a steel roof. Where was I?

"Hey there he is, how ya feeling big boy? Sorry you couldn't enjoy the ride, had to use a really mild sedative so you'd wake up fast. How you feeling, bit woozy?"

Xigbar? Oh right, Xigbar had shot me in the butt. I was going to kill him when I got out of here.

"Let me out of here!" I shouted, slamming my hands up against the steel wall.

I heard Xigbar laugh.

"Just a sec tiger, I have to finish setting up the cameras. We don't want your audience to miss a second of this."

"The boss is going to kill you when he finds out about this!"

"Ansem Darke kill me? Kiddo, he gave me the all go, said as long as I got some good publicity for the police he was all in. Think he mentioned a little Halloween bonus for you to, but I could be lying. Almost done."

Ansem had let this psycho shoot me and put me in some prank? I needed a new job. Alright, so it turns out I'm the next victim, what do I know? From what I can tell, they know everybody's greatest fear. That scene with Terra being judged had been an all too familiar conversation after we left out mother, he was terrified of something like that happening. Aqua's stage fight had been hit hard, Kairi was all about her looks, so it made sense that she had lost her hair, and Naminé had been turned into art, while Vanitas… I still had no clue.

Somehow Club XIII knew exactly where to hit us, and they hit hard. I don't know how they knew what they did, but that meant they knew what they were doing. And if I was facing my greatest fear, then whatever was about to happen was going to be up high. Heights and I had never been on good relations, I had a tendency to fall, hard, if I got more than three feet off the ground.

The pranks didn't seem to last long, all I had to do was outlast whatever psycho prank they through at me and I'd be ejected.

Lights sprang to life in my space, showing I was in some kind of metal box, holes built to let me breathe but not to see. As expected, I was in the Club XIII shirt, the Roman numeral II written in bullet holes along with the phrase "For being one bad little boy, guilty of hurting the newbie."

Who was the newbie? So far everyone had been accused of hurting the club's thirteenth member. But I didn't know any of the members apart from Xemnas, Luxord, and now Xigbar. Who had everyone hurt so bad that they were coming after all of us?

I sighed irritably, crossing my arms and taking deep breaths looking down. This was all too confusing, nothing was making sense. I glanced down, trying to concentrate, only to freeze, staring at my shirt. The cross like symbol on the shirt was obscured now, only the top part showing. Without the heart like piece at the bottom, it almost looked like a star. It was so familiar, I knew it from somewhere. Maybe if you just added another piece, one more point to make four instead of three.

Wait a second. If you turned that into a necklace, added blonde hair, blue eyes, and a horror story of trauma thirteen friends had just added to, you got Sora's boyfriend and boyfriends little brother. Roxas. No, Roxas couldn't have organized something like this, especially not in a single night. The kid was as harmless as a fly, the only times I had seen him be aggressive were when you threatened his friends.

Sora was wrong about him being scary though. The one time I had seen someone stupid enough to hurt Sora, Roxas had intervened before I could. Hurting his Sora brought out a whole other side of Roxas, a psycho side that wasn't about to let anyone do anything to the person he cared for the most. But he couldn't have done something like this. He couldn't have. Right?

The front of the box suddenly slid up, bright lights blinding me. The box tilted and I fell forward, yelling out in fright as I found myself out on a ledge. I scrambled back, hands latching onto a wall behind me, gasping hard. I was on the ledge of one of the Destiney Islands bridges, a ledge far away from any safe way down, at least five stories up, the ground below so far below. I could see a crowd of people down there, pointing up at me and cheering.

This was just another show for them. I glanced back, trying to see Xigbar or the box, but they were gone. Someone whistled, and I looked around, seeing Xigbar on a parallel ledge, this one with a door. He carefully set the box inside, before leaning up against the wall, smiling and giving a polite wave. Pompous jerk.

"Morning sleeping beauty. Get enough beauty sleep?"

"Get me down from here!" I shouted, pressing myself up against the wall as hard as I could.

"No can do Squall, you have to get yourself down."

"I'm going to fall to my death you idiot!"

"Really? Dang, that's a shame. I'll make sure to bring flowers to the funeral. You want roses or carnations?"

"Xigbar!"

Xigbar chuckled, before letting out a dramatic sigh.

"You want down? I think you know the drill by now. We scare you, to death preferably, you survive, a testament to our greatness, and we all live happily ever after. I'm not gonna be as high and mighty as those other freaks, I really don't have any problems with you. I'm just here to have some fun."

Xigbar snapped his fingers, and I stared in awe despite myself as a bridge of pipes suddenly came into being, entangled and crisscrossing, spanning between the two ledges.

"Here's the deal; about a fourth of the pipes are secure enough that you can get across. The rest? Nice and loose, you step on them you take a nice long tumble. You make it over here, you can punch me and be on your merry way. You don't? Well, that's pretty self-explanatory."

"Screw you Xigbar!"

Xigbar just shrugged.

"Sorry tiger, you're not my type. Oh, and smile for the camera, you don't want to disappoint the fans!"

Xigbar raised a hand, pointing to the cameras on both my side and his. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to steel myself. What were my options? I could stay on the ledge and wait for somebody to come get me. Or I could risk my life, take on the terrifying height, and rush out the door to safety. Obvious choice there.

Something suddenly collided with the wall next to me, and I looked back up to see Xemnas waving over the barrel of his gun.

"I see you, thinking about staying nice and safe over there. Nice try, but not in the cards. I'd get moving, I'm going to fire another bullet at you every, I don't know, thirteen seconds. So good to you? Yeah? Cool, let's get this party going!"

"Are you insane?!"

Xemnas looked thoughtful for a few seconds, before shrugging.

"Relax, it's a BB gun."

I could hear the crowd cheering from down below. They had just heard a madman threaten to shoot me if I didn't risk my life, and they were fine with that. Screw you too humanity. I took a deep breath, knowing that I had to look down in order to see the pipes beneath my feet. A fourth were safe, the rest would fall. Please let this be my lucky day.

I tested my weight on the first pipe, slowly sliding over it, pushing down before being sure that it secure and carefully stepping out. Alright, maybe I could do this. I took another hesitant step, and pushed down on another pipe. At my touch, the pipe collapsed, free falling and vanishing down below. The crowd got louder as I struggled to get balance, throwing myself back off the pipe and against the wall. I could stand being shot at, that wasn't worth it.

"I figure you might do something stupid like that." Xigbar called. He snapped his fingers again, and suddenly the ledge I was on started retracting, my safety slowly slipping away.

"This isn't funny, stop it!" I ordered, well aware of the terror in my own voice.

Xigbar just shrugged. "Newbie didn't think it was very funny either, that didn't stop you. By the way it's been thirteen seconds."

I had a second to comprehend what he said before he pulled the trigger, and I yelped as one of the pellets hit my foot. I leapt involuntarily, and I was back on the pipes. I shouted in panic as a trio gave way beneath me, tilting dangerously and actually falling before grabbing onto the one secure pipe, swinging dangerously over the gaping abyss below me.

Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down.

"Leon, Leon, Leon!" The crowd shouted from below.

I started shimmying forward, testing each new pipe carefully, and slowly making my way forward. Sure I was so terrified I didn't know if my heart had stopped or was just beating too fast to tell otherwise, and my knuckles were pure white, but I was getting there. Xigbar shot another bullet, this one bouncing off my knuckle.

I yelped again, swearing loudly and flipping him off, surprised it had only left a red whelp across the flesh. Figures though, insane as he was, he had crazy good aim.

"Almost there kiddo!" Xigbar proclaimed.

He was right, I was almost there, I could see the end in sight now! Only ten feet to go now. I was feeling good, my panic was dissipating; I could do this. Five feet away. Xigbar suddenly sighed in a bored way, before a sudden smile played across his lips.

"You know what? I changed my mind." He snapped his fingers, and all the pipes suddenly came lose, falling down.

I screamed, watching as the ground rushed up to meet me. Goodbye world. I love you Terra, I love you Sora. I love you Cloud. And I kept screaming until I hit hard, with a resounding splat.

x-X-x

"You pushed it a little too far." Roxas complained, watching from the shadows.

I glanced back to the scene, seeing Leon emerging from the safety pool I had installed far below him.

"He was fine, there wasn't any way the guy could have hurt himself. I had everything worked out, have a little faith tiger."

Roxas just shrugged, watching as Leon stood there, wide eyed as adoring 'fans' surrounded him, asking him all about how it had felt to be pranked.

"You wanted results didn't you? Think back to how scared you were, and then tell me I went too far."

Roxas stayed quiet, eyes never leaving Leon.

"No."

"What?"

"This is too far. I get that now, this was a too extreme."

I raised an eyebrow.

"What, you're backing out now? After everything you've done, after all the publicity you've got? Xemnas isn't going to let that happen."

"I didn't say that. I just said it was too extreme. We've pushed things a little too far. Yeah, they hurt me, but they're my family. I want to scare them, I don't want them to feel how I really felt. But I will have my revenge, and they will be scared. Just on my terms."

I rolled my eye.

"Whatever you say kiddo. How's your project coming?"

"Almost done. You should go back to the club, Xemnas will be needing staff, and you just had a nice publicity stunt."

"As you wish. And if you want to tone things down I'd go chat with Vexen and Xaldin, they'll be taking care of two of your besties right around now."

Roxas nodded grimly and started walking off. He stopped a few feet away, before turning back, a slight smile on his face.

"Nice shot. The look on his face when he came out of the pool and realized he was still alive was priceless."

I shrugged, giving a grand hand wave and smiling.

"I do my best. And Roxy, if you want to talk about things being too extreme, I'd rethink your plan for Sora."

Roxas stayed quiet for a while, before pulling up his hood.

"I already thought about that."

"What did you think?"

"That it's not half as extreme as it's going to be when I'm done with it."

* * *

><p><strong>There you go, enjoy! Seasons Creepings!<strong>


	8. 6 PM-Olette

**Disclaimer; I don't have the rights to Kingdom Hearts yet. Or Disney. Or Marvel. Or Final Fantasy. Or Pokemon. Or Digimon. Or Sleepy Hollow. Or Once Upon a Time. Or the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Or Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Or...**

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><p><strong>6 P.M. Olette<strong>

Have you ever had the feeling that you were being watched? Because that was how'd I'd felt all day. I had gotten up early to go for a morning jog and stop by the Bippity Boppity Halloween Boutique to pick up my mask for the night. Everything had been perfectly normal until I got to town.

It started with Aqua. Aqua's always a perfectionist and a time freak, she's always on schedule. So it felt just, I don't know, wrong, to see her out jogging almost an hour later. She looked pale and confused, stumbling around before charging ahead of me into the boutique, and then charging out a second later. When I asked the clerk, they said Aqua had been asking about flying elephants.

I had started back on my way home, trying to figure out if I should help Aqua. That's when I ran into them. I had almost been home, I had been going through the park, when suddenly the temperature plummeted. Everyone on the islands is used to things getting a little brisk when winter comes, we're usually pansies when it gets cold, we're so used to heat. Last Christmas had been a nothing short of a miracle, having the island covered in snow.

But this was a different kind of cold. I shivered, teeth chattering as I walked on, glancing around. Even the pond I had passed this morning was suddenly frozen over. What was going on? I did a slow spin around, taking in the area. Frost decorated the trees and grass, mist hung low in the air. But I could still see the bright sunshine and warmth just a few feet away, it was like I was trapped in a miniature pocket of winter.

I turned back around, only to let out an involuntary squeal. A figure in a black, hooded cloak was standing in front of me, staring down. I backpedaled fast, slipping on the icy ground.

"S-Stay back!" I warned.

I'm all about being a nice person, but Halloween was full of creeps just waiting for a chance to pounce on an innocent girl. I wasn't going to be that girl.

The figure simply stayed still, watching me from the shadows of their hood.

"Who are you? If you come any closer I'll scream."

"Who are you? If you come any closer I'll scream."

I froze when I heard my own voice come out from the hood.

"What?"

"What?"

I took another step back, and so did they, suddenly not seeming to be so much taller than me anymore.

"Stop it!"

"Stop it!"

I clenched my fist, only for them to do the same. I stared at them in confusion, before slowly waving my hand in the air. They mirrored my movements exactly.

"Excuse me… Um, hello?"

"Excuse me… Um, hello?"

Alright, so there was a stranger who was copying my every move, sounded just like me, and we were in an ice bubble. Right. I hopped. They hopped. I spun around, in time to see them spinning just like me. They mirrored my jazz hands, flawlessly copied my Thriller moves, ducked and swatted at air in perfect time, they were a perfect copycat. Well, if they wanted to copy me, let's see how much fun they have with this.

I reached up to my head, grasping at a nonexistent object, and pulling back, waiting expectantly. The figure took a while to copy my movements this time, slowly reaching up, grabbing the brim of their hood, and pulling back.

I gasped. And so did they. A girl with bright green eyes, soft peach-colored skin, and brown hair stared back at me, eyes just as wide as I knew mine would be.

"You're me!" We said at the same time, before the next second demanding "What's going on?"

The other me just stared back at me with the same look of shock I knew I had, and slowly, we both started forward, circling each other.

"How?" I tried to ask, but they just asked the same question. It was an exact mirror replica of me. We stopped, facing each other, staring into our others eyes.

Hesitantly, I reached out, flinching back as they did to, before going on. Our hands touched in-between us, and I had a second to feel the strange texture of the other Olette's gloves before there was a spark of electricity between us, and I jumped back. The other Olette didn't move.

She just smiled at me.

"Hello Olette."

I stared, transfixed as the other version of me started moving on her own, placing her hands on her hips and watching me with a lazy grin plastered to her face.

"I bet you're wondering what's going on right now, aren't you?"

I nodded mutely.

"Poor, sweet little Olette. You didn't mean to hurt XIII did you? Oh well, the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions."

The other me threw her hair over one shoulder, face suddenly turning serious, eyes flashing coldly.

"What is going on, is that you are being punished. You thirteen wanted to have a good scare, and now you shall have your reward. I hope you enjoy the Replica program my sweet."

And then the other Olette turned on her heel, drawing her hood back up and stomping away. The mist and cold followed her, swallowing her up in the fog, before dissipating. There was nothing left, no evidence that she had ever been there in the first place.

I stayed there, staring after her for the longest time. When I finally came to my senses, I ran home, nervous and shaky. What were they talking about? Who was XIII and how had I hurt them? Why was I being punished? And what was a Replica program?

The thoughts whirled around in my head all day as I tried my best to stay calm, trying to think. When I finally managed to get over my fears and leave the house, it was almost four. That's when things went from bad, to worse.

We've all had the feeling we're being watched, that was a stupid question. Here's a better one, if you don't mind me asking; have you ever felt like you're seeing your face where it doesn't belong?

Because I was. I was headed to the mall to meet up with Hayner and Pence, planning on picking up some candy and heading over to Sora's house for a party. I was walking down the street, when a girl bumped into me.

"Sorry." I murmured, throwing on a smile.

My smile froze when my own face looked back at me, waving the apology away and saying "It's no biggie, bye!"

And then they were gone. I stared after her for a long time, before shaking my head. I must have just imagined it, just the stress of the day getting to me. Right? But when I got to the mall, the same thing happened. As I threw open the door, a young girl ran out, closely followed by her mother.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared after them, hearing the little girl giggling happily, the mother laughing and saying she loved her, all with my voice, and my laughter. No, that wasn't possible. I really needed to lie down. Maybe I should just go find the others and tell them I wasn't feeling good, or maybe we could just go over to my house for a while.

I managed to make it to the food court without any more incidents, spirits lifting a little when I saw my friends laughing at one of the tables.

"Hey guys!"

"Oh you're finally here! Listen, have you heard about the thirteen victim's pranks?" Pence asked excitedly.

"Of course she's heard of it, everybody's heard about them by now." Hayner said, leaning back in his seat and winking at me.

I blushed a little, sitting down next to him and giving his hand a quick squeeze.

"Actually I haven't. Someone's pulling pranks?"

"Pranks doesn't even begin to describe how amazing these stunts are." Hayner exclaimed.

"They're so well thought out, you wouldn't believe it! And all the people who've been pranked so far have been people we know!"

"Really?" I frowned, turning back to Pence "What happened?"

"Well the new place downtown, Club XIII, is having this big Halloween prank war going on as a publicity stunt. They've chosen thirteen people to get 'revenge' upon. So far Naminé, Kairi, Vanitas, Aqua, Terra, and Leon have been picked."

Aqua? Huh, maybe that's why she had been acting so weird this morning, she had been pranked.

"Oh man you should have seen Leon's face when he got out of that pool, it was priceless!" Hayner said, laughing and slapping his hand on the table.

Pence nodded in agreement, chuckling himself and I smiled. I wasn't much for pranks, but it sounded like everyone was having a good time.

"So who's next on their list? That's six down, if there are thirteen there's still seven to go."

Pence gave a nod in confirmation.

"Hayner and I were trying to figure that out. Well actually, everyone's trying to figure that out. They release the name thirteen minutes after the hour. We've got another ten before the next name is shown."

"And so something just happens to them? How does it happen?"

"Well it all typically starts when a black cloaked figure, one of the Club XIII high ranking members, approaches you."

My heart skipped a beat. Black cloaked figures?

"After that, typically things start happening real fast, you start seeing weird things, or something starts happening. Leon got shot with a dart and then put on the bridge. But then we heard rumors about Vanitas and Aqua."

Hayner nodded. "Yeah, apparently those two got pranked earlier, it just took a while for everything to finally kick in. Here's the list. Aw, they don't have a video of this one up yet."

Hayner passed me his phone, the list of names, along with a time counting down the minutes until the next prank. I barely noticed, my heart was still skipping beats. This was a prank? Okay, that made sense. So I wasn't going crazy. But how could someone make me see my face on someone else? That was impossible, they couldn't have my face, and they couldn't sound like me.

"Dude, they didn't add a video but they have the place! And it's here!" Pence said excitedly.

I glanced down at the screen again. "The seventh victim will reveal themselves at the Traverse Mall Cafeteria."

No way. No, no, no, this wasn't going to happen. Maybe if I left I could get home and avoid all this. And then the crowds started coming in, people talking animatedly, excited for the next prank. Escape was cut off. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, counting to ten.

I was going to be pranked, there was probably no way to avoid that. But I was a grown, mature young woman, I could handle whatever life threw at me. Right? Yes, of course I could. I took a deep breath, smiling and opening my eyes.

My smile vanished. Across the table, two other versions of me were sitting there, laughing and talking about the pranks. I stared in shock, taking in their appearance. They looked just like me, they sounded just like me. The only difference was the clothes, they were the only hint that my others could be someone else.

"Hey Olette, you okay babe?" One asked.

I blinked several times, sighing in relief when I found myself seeing just my friends again.

"Y-yeah, I'm totally fine."

I squeeze his hand reassuringly, although honestly I wasn't sure who I was trying to reassure.

"Here's your large fries, Paopu Burger, and sea salt shake, sir."

I froze as I stared at the cafeteria waitress handing Pence his meal, watching as my own face smiled down at him, setting down his tray and walking back to her store.

"Oh this is the best!" Pence- no, Pence was gone it was the other version of me again- said.

"Finally, I'm starving!" The Olette who had been Hayner proclaimed, grabbing a handful of fries and stuffing them into her mouth.

She hummed in delight, leaning back while the other sucked at the sea salt shake, smiling happily.

"I can't wait for the next victim!" My voice said form beside me.

I jumped, whirling around to see yet another me talking to a stranger, bouncing up and down excitedly.

"I wonder who it is, there's so many people here!"

Not anymore. Every time I blinked, more strangers vanished, and more Olette's appeared. In a matter of seconds, everyone in sight was an Olette. My heart was hammering as I stared around, fingers digging into my chairs arm rest.

"You look sick babe, you sure you're okay? Is it that time of month again or something?"

If I hadn't been petrified with fear I would have slapped her-him I mean.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there are seven minutes left until the next victim is revealed, gather closer!" My voice shouted over the malls intercoms, and I jumped as the crowd of me's erupted in cheers.

"I need some air." I gasped, bolting to my feet.

I tried to run through the crowd to no avail.

"A video's starting!" Someone cried.

The crowd pressed together, further blocking off any chance of escape. A hand caught mine, and I whirled around to see Hayner-Olette looking worried.

"Olette?"

I just shook my head, looking around. The more of me I saw, the more claustrophobic I became, it was like the room was shrinking, there were way too many Olette's.

"Greetings to you all." A voice suddenly called out, strange and unfamiliar. My head snapped up, looking desperately for the break in the wave of me's. Everyone was staring intently at the many TV screens around the room wehre a black hood dominated the screen under the Club XIII logo.

"I am certain you all are wondering who could possibly be the next victim, which of us is the unlucky scoundrel. In actuality there are three victims in your immediate midst right now as I speak."

A delighted gasp went up, whispers flying like wildfire through the cafeteria.

"Unfortunately I am only after one, my colleagues will be calling on the others soon enough."

A groan came from the crowd, but the figure held up a gloved hand and the room fell back into silence.

"My victim knows who they are, and they are trying to escape. But we won't let that happen now, will we? They couldn't even escape if they wanted to at this point, it's far too late for that."

I gulped, letting Hayner-Olette guide me back to my seat.

"Many years ago I became enthralled with the idea of hypnotism. The notion that there was a way to control the minds of others was highly appealing. I eventually came to be a master hypnotist, my victim can attest for that. Right now in their eyes, all of you are imposters. Why? Because you all look just like her."

The crowd oohed and awed a few saying how awesome it would be to have a world filled with people just like them. Pence-Olette gave me a weird look. I could see him putting pieces together in his head.

"Who is our victim? Only the thirteen seconds until you find out."

The crowd went wild as the figure vanished, replaced by a thirteen second timer, its numbers rapidly falling.

"Ten, nine, eight!" The crowd chanted.

"Olette, is it you?" Pence-Olette asked.

Hayner-Olette's eyes widened, and she looked at me expectantly. I couldn't answer, fear was bubbling up inside me.

"Seven, six, five!"

I had to get out of her, I just had to. Prank or not, this fear was real. My face couldn't appear on that screen.

"Four, three, two!"

My limbs wouldn't obey me. I was stuck in my seat, staring at the screen. Oh no.

"One!"

My face and name flashed onto the screen.

"There she is!" Somebody called, and the Olette crowd all turned, staring, laughing, smiling, and taking pictures. The figure reappeared on the screen.

"All day long our victim has been watching in horror as people, pictures, and places all turned into a perfect mirror image of herself. Isn't that right Olette?"

They pulled down their hood, but this time it wasn't my face staring back at me. It was a man with long flaxen hair, piercing green eyes, and an arrogant chin.

"Of course this was just the setup. Why don't you admire your souvenir while I prepare your true punishment my dear? May I have your attention, your attention if you please, one and all!"

Almost all the Olette's turned to the screen, only Pence and Hayner still looking at me. This wasn't the end? Pence suddenly gaped saying "Her shirt, it's changed!"

She-He was right. My shirt was the same, but the design had changed, it was covered in thorns and had the Roman numeral IV neatly printed along with the words "In regard to her actions, the jury finds you guilty."

"You all want a show? Something more spectacular to see? Look around, you are in for a treat!"

People obeyed only to start gasping and doing crazy.

"I look just like her!"

"No way this is epic!"

"It's the Olette Invasion!"

They could see what I saw? How?

"A little hypnotism goes a long way. Get people to watch you long enough, soon you have a whole army at your disposal. The Olette invasion, hmm? I do like the sound of that. Listen all!"

The Olette's turned, eyes blank and glazed, staring transfixed at the screen. Nobody was moving or talking anymore.

"For her crimes against XIII, I sentence her to a mob treatment. As a colleague of mine would say, go wild."

He flashed a haughty grin, before the screens went black. Every Olette turned to face me. I wasn't petrified anymore, I was shaking so bad that the chair was clattering around. Mob treatment? Oh no. No, that wasn't good at all. Only Hayner and Pence seemed to be unaffected.

"I think it's time we split." Hayner-Olette said, helping me to my feet.

"Y-yeah, sounds like a plan." Pence-Olette agreed shakily, pushing me towards the edge of the crowd.

The silence last only a few more seconds before all the Olette's simultaneously screamed "Get her!"

The three of us screamed, dashing away as a wave of Olette's came down on us.

x-X-x

"I know I said to not be so extreme, but that was kind of tame."

Vexen gave me an offended look, grimacing.

"Genius takes time boy, you have me mere hours to engineer a plot to terrify your little playmate."

I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"Whatever. Thanks anyway, she's scared and that's what matters. I need you to fix up the fog machine and special effects, Demyx broke most of them."

Vexen sighed dramatically and started walking away, muttering about ungrateful brats and the effects of hypnotism. Demyx suddenly came running up to me, looking panicked and yelling "You gotta help me! I'm the real Olette, I swear, please Roxas, help me!"

"Vexen!"

Vexen shrugged guiltily.

"I needed a test dummy, he fit the bill perfectly."

I rolled my eyes and pushed Demyx gently towards Vexen.

"Vexen will help you Olette, then you can go have some fun with Hayner. Isn't that right Vexen?"

Vexen grumbled and led Demyx away.

Our mad scientist had better fix him fast, Demyx was up right after Xaldin. Speaking of my dread locked friend, where was he? Oh well, he'd get the job done.

Say hit to Xaldin for me Pence.

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><p><strong>There ya go, we're making progress here! Only a few more and we're done! Hope you're having a gruesomely great Halloween! <strong>


	9. 7 PM-Pence

**Disclaimer; I don't own Kingdom Hearts, so I suggest we all get together, steal the rights, and then fight for the death over who gets them. No? Oh you've got popcorn? And candy? And you're reading a story? Later? Oh sure, sure, take your time, I'll get back to you on this.**

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><p><strong>7 P.M. Pence<strong>

Tonight had been eventful to say the least. Hayner and I had managed to get Olette away from the crazed mob of psychos, getting her home as fast as possible. After a freak out session, the three of us managed to calm down.

Yeah that had been insane, but it was just a prank, it was time to have some fun. We had split up. Olette taking her costume over to Hayner's while I ran and got mine. We'd meet up at his place at 7:30 and then go out and get the rest of the gang together.

I hadn't even been a part of the pranks and I was still terrified, I couldn't imagine how the others had to be feeling. This party was going to be the perfect remedy, a great way to get everyone to just kick back and relax.

I walked into my room and closed my door, pulling out my costume- Pooh Bear (long story, I lost a bet with Roxas) - and calling up Sora. The call went straight to voice mail, his voice happy as he goofily ordered us to make a message.

"Hiya Sora, it's me, Pence. We still on for the party tonight? Olette, Hayner, and I will be there soon, bye!"

I set my phone down, trying got find the red shirt for my costume. Once we got everyone together, everything would be okay, they just needed a treat to go with their trick. My phone beeped and I turned back to the bed where I had thrown it, but it was nowhere in sight.

I frowned, swearing to tie it to my wrist from now on. I got on my knees, checking for my phone under the bed. Nothing but dust balls and a few shoes. My light flickered as I got back to my feet, and my phone beeped again.

I looked around confused, only to see it lying across the room on the windowsill. How had it gotten over there? Oh well. I walked over to pick it up, glancing up when my light flickered again. Must need new bulbs.

Something moved in the corner of my eye and I froze, watching the strange object pulse and twitch. I spun towards it, sighing in relief when I was it was just an old jacket caught in the breeze from one of the vents.

Sheesh, I was way to jumpy tonight. I pulled Pooh's ears onto my head, before heading over to the mirror. Apart from missing the red shirt, I actually made a pretty good Pooh Bear. I smiled at myself, waving one of my paws.

My eyes caught onto something dark in the mirror, something that didn't belong. One of the cloaked figures. I whirled around, heart leaping into my throat, but nobody was there.

I looked back into the mirror, but mine was the only reflection there. I checked Club XIII's list, scanning past Olette's name, but there was only a timer, already down to four minutes. Being scared was a bad thing, but knowing that none of it was real didn't take the fear crashing through my heart away. They were in my house!

Or were they? My bedroom door was still closed, the window was shut, and my closet was open. There wasn't exactly any place for someone to hide or escape to. I was just being paranoid, I bet the whole island was at this point. I took a steadying breath and went back to searching for my shirt.

And then the door creaked open. I stopped at the noise, staring as it slowly cracked open, revealing empty shadows.

"This isn't funny!" I called into the darkness "It's my house, you can't be in here!"

Something in the attic creaked and groaned in response. I frowned, walking out into the hallway and flicking on the light. Light always made thing better. The light came to life for a few seconds, before flashing and fading, plunging the hallway back into darkness.

I returned back into my room, closing my door and shivering as a frigid breeze went by. Wait, the vents were still blowing hot air, where was the cold coming from? My window was open. The curtains billowed lazily in the frigid wind, and I hastily made my way over, pulling the window down so hard that the glass rattled.

My light went out and I started shaking.

"Seriously not funny!" I called. My voice echoed eerily in my empty room, and I made my way to the door, flicking the switch on and off to no avail. My door creaked open again, and I heard something scuttling down the hall.

"I know this is just some prank! Cut it out!"

As soon as the words left my mouth, all the lights came back on. I stayed there for a few seconds before sighing with relief and calling out "Thank you!"

And then I turned around, coming face to chest with a dark cloaked figure. I screamed and backpedaled fast, tripping over my feet. The lights went out again, flickering back on only a second later. They were gone.

All that remained to show anyone had ever been here was a strange heap of grey, black, and silver cloth. I got back to my feet and cautiously advanced, toeing the cloth.

It didn't move or turn into a monster and try to eat me, so I supposed it was safe. I bent down and gingerly lifted it up. It was my Pooh shirt, only it wasn't. It was discolored, with sharp thorns tangling all over it, the Club XIII logo on the back, and the Roman numeral III slashed over the words "This treasonous foe who claimed to be friend, is guilty of all, his spirit is dead!"

That was _so_ good to know.

"Pence…" A voice whispered, the scuttling starting up again. I dropped the shirt as the lights flickered again, gasping when it suddenly appeared on my chest. How had they done that?

"Pence…" They called in a sing song voice, dragging out the first e.

Something scraped on the wall behind me, and I whirled around to see long claw marks on the wall.

"Come on guys, I told you this wasn't funny!"

My closet banged shut, my window flew open, and my door groaned and bulged, the whole room shook, and the lights went out again. This time it didn't come back on.

The sound of something shattering echoed through the house and I gulped, grabbing a struggle bat Roxas had lent me, advancing into the darkness.

"I'm warning you! You better get out now!"

I made it to the top of the stairs, the bat shaking almost as much as I was. Something collided with me from behind, and I yelled out in terror, plummeting down the stairs. I tumbled down, yelping and whining with every impact, dropping the bat in the process.

I ended up bouncing up at the last few steps, and suddenly found myself in one of my parents arm chairs, somehow perfectly angled to catch me. I was still recovering when the chair suddenly rocketed into the darkness with me, its screaming hostage.

The chair skidded to a halt in our darkened living room and I shot forward, only for a powerful gust of wind to blast me back up against the chair. I had enough time to breath, eyes wide, still totally discombobulated when more screaming came from around the room.

A fire of grey flames sparked to life in our fireplace, illuminating the darkness. I let out an unintentional squeal as my eyes snapped to the black cloaked figure reclining in the chair on the other side of the room.

"My, you really are impressive" Their voice drawled, thick with sarcasm "I was hoping for a challenge, this is child's play."

I tried to speak, but the words died in my mouth, all that came out were guttural squawks and gurgles.

"You're not worth the effort it would take to truly terrify you. But I suppose running in fear is good enough. It matter not, XIII has already promised me a chance at a real prize later. Now that will be a victim worth the effort. Oh the things I'll do to him… Where were we? Oh yes, you were screaming."

The flamed roared out of the fireplace and the room started to spin. Pictures were falling off the walls, and furniture groaned as it scraped and slid across the floor. Wind started blowing through my hair, sending smaller objects flying through the air. The figure cackled as we started rising into the air, the wind growing stronger and stronger as I screamed.

My chair spun, flipped, slid and soared around the room, it was like I was trapped in some horrible nightmare version of a haunted pinball machine. My chair suddenly shot into the sky, the ceiling and roof ripping open above me as I rocketed upward. I screamed, the sound of air rushing past my ears being all I could hear. And then we were falling. The chair finally separated as we plummeted towards the ground, coming in fast.

I screamed as the ground rushed up to meet me, curling up in a ball. The wind died just as suddenly as it had begun, silence falling apart from my own terrified cries. After a few seconds of not splattering all over the ground, I hesitantly opened my eyes. I was curled up on my living room floor. The room was pristine, the furniture was in its proper place, the pictures were hung on the wall with care, it was like nothing had ever happened in the first place.

I stood shakily, still panicking internally. Was that it? I turned around, coming face to face with a dreadlocked man with violet eyes, grinning a psychotic smile.

"Boo." They whispered.

I screamed louder than I had ever before and dashed out the door, the sounds of the stranger's laughter booming out across the lawn and into the empty night.

x-X-x

"That was an adequate warm up. You're Sora had better be a greater challenge."

"He will be. There's only one thing that scares him, and that's me."

I raised an eyebrow.

"If I can recall correctly, isn't that the same attitude that started this whole debacle in the first place?"

"That's because I was going about everything the wrong way, I know where I went wrong. I'll get him, just you wait."

I shrugged, viewing Roxas' finished project.

"I admit, I am impressed. I have little doubt that something of this magnitude has a chance of even terrifying me."

Roxas grinned proudly as Axel jogged over.

"I got the ransom not ready, you want me to send it over?"

"Nah, wait a little longer, send it out after the party starts. How's Demyx, still hypnotized?"

"Nope, Vexen's got him all fixed up, he's going off to play with Hayner right now. Man I'm glad I'm not that kid right now, the scares are bad enough but with Demyx we all know he's gonna add water. And water is sooo not my thing, I'm a fire guy. Water is evil."

"Of course it is." I said dismissively while Roxas chuckled.

"Whatever you say Axel."

He coughed, exclaiming 'aquaphobe', before coughing again, smiling innocently over at his best friend. Axel glared at the blonde saying "Hey don't be judging Roxy, water is evil, E-V-I-L, got it memorized? Every insane person should be afraid of water, its liquid wickedness incarnate."

"Don't you mean any sane person should fear it?" I asked.

Roxas just shook his head saying "No, because then it wouldn't apply to psycho's like us."

He and Axel broke into laughter, Axel grabbing the younger boy and giving him a noogie while the blonde boy laughed, struggling in his grasp.

I rolled my eyes and advanced towards Roxas' monumental project. Those two madmen deserved each other. Sora better keep on Axel's good side, Roxas had a tendency to take the red heads advice to extremes. Together they would probably take over the world. Or, the more likely option, pull of the greatest sea salt ice cream heist in history, party, and pull a Thelma and Louise.

Yeah, that sounded right. Good luck Sora I though, ascending the dark path. You are most certainly going to need it.

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><p><strong>Here it is, hope you enjoy and review, hope you're having a fantastically fearful day!<strong>


	10. 8 PM-Hayner

**Disclaimer; Owneth not the rights to Kingdom Hearts do I (Yeah I'm recycling the same jokes as last time, so sue me)**

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><p><strong>8 P.M. Hayner<strong>

"I'm getting worried about Pence." Olette said, glancing out the window for the umpteenth time

"He's probably just having issues getting into his costume, its fine. You're just worried because you got pranked."

I was pretty worried too, but I wasn't going to go around admitting that now, was I? No, I was dealing with my anxiety in the best way possible; shooting mutant zombies on my PS4. I could just feel my tension flying away as I used a shotgun to decapitate a zombie midget. Ah, sweet serenity.

"You're right, I just need to calm down."

Olette slid down onto the couch beside me, taking a deep breath and putting her head on my shoulder.

"You want a go? It helped me."

Olette eyed my game distastefully before giving a polite shake of her head.

"I think I'll pass, but thanks."

I paused the game and took her hand, giving it a squeeze.

"Those freaks were weird. You did really great out there, I'm proud of you."

Olette rolled her eyes.

"I ran for my life screaming because an angry mob of pseudo me's were after me. How does that make you proud of me?"

"Well…" I glanced around uneasily before looking back to her "Not that I _ever _said it, but I wasn't that much better. And hey, for all they know those screams were war cries, you were just running in the wrong direction."

Olette rolled her eyes again, chuckling and scooting closer.

"Whatever you say boo."

I blushed at the nickname, more than aware of what would happen to me if Roxas and Pence ever heard Olette's pet name for me.

"I'm raiding your fridge, I'm starving. You want anything?" Olette asked, heading for the kitchen.

"Nah I'm good."

I went back to my game, losing my shotgun and going in for a melee with a rusty spoon. I loved this game. A loud splash came from behind me, and I turned around, glancing out the sliding glass door to the backyard. Everything was silent and unmoving.

I stood up, peering at the pool that took up a corner of my yard, but the cover was on as far as I could see and it wasn't rippling or shaking, so nothing had jumped on it or fallen in (we had an almost weekly appointment with the neighbors vertically challenged cat who had a bad habit of falling on the pool cover and refusing to get off, or trying to drown itself and anyone else foolish enough to get close).

Must have been my imagination. I went back to playing the game, glancing up as Olette came back into the room. She looked really cute in her ragdoll costume, stitched and sown together. I was in my own costume, a Frankenstein like creature to match hers. Our trio with Pence would have been fantastic, he was going to be a werewolf, but then he lost a bet with Roxas, and now he was Winnie the Pooh.

Before the whole incident last night, Roxas had been wearing some reverse version of Sora's costume, but now I wasn't sure if he was even coming. There was no way Cloud would have let Sora stay moping outside Roxy's door all day, so that mean he was still at home probably. Olette and I had already called everyone, telling them to head over to Sora's house for the party.

Maybe I should break off on the way there and go see if I could convince Roxas to come out and talk things over. Everyone felt bad about what had happened, it wasn't like we would have done it if we had known what had happened to him.

Olette chomped down on a sandwich while I kept killing more zombies. A few more minutes went by, and I frowned, hearing the sound of rushing water coming from the kitchen.

"Hey Olette, did leave the sink running?"

Olette looked confused, but listened to the sound and shrugged.

"I guess so. Be right back, I'll take care of it."

Olette got back up and went into the kitchen. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I fished it out of my pocket, pulling up a new text from Pence.

"Just got pranked, freaked out big time, heading to your place, let's move before it happens again."

Poor guy, Pence wasn't a big horror buff, he probably even wet himself. I wonder what they did to him.

I sent back a quick reply calling to Olette in the kitchen, "Hey, Pence got pranked but he's on his way here, he wants to get going as soon as he's here."

I didn't get a reply, and I kept gaming. A few minutes went by before I grimaced, glancing up at the open door to the kitchen. Olette still wasn't back yet, and I could still hear the faucet running.

"Olette?"

No reply. I sighed and paused my game, throwing down the controller and heading off into the kitchen. Olette wasn't in there, and the faucet was going on full force, the sink almost overflowing. I ran over and shut it off before it could make a mess, reaching in and trying to pull out the plug. It was jammed shut, I couldn't make it budge.

"Hey Olette, where are you? You trying to find something to wedge the plug lose? I think I've got a wrench or something we can use to jam it open, it's in the garage, can you get it?"

My answer was just more silence. Where was she? My phone buzzed again and I fished it out. Another text from Pence.

"Not good, Club XIII, our next."

What? Our next? A call from Olette suddenly came in and I answered, bringing the phone to my ear.

"Hey babe, where are you? I came in the kitchen and-"

"You've got to get out of there!" Olette interrupted "You're the next victim!"

My phone buzzed again and I glanced down, the new text from Pence just at the top of the screen.

"Sorry, meant you're."

Oh crap. Another wet splash came from outside, and I heard something collide with the kitchen window.

"Hayner? You need to run now, they're already starting its-"

The call dropped, beeping protests in my ear before turning off. Not good. Something collided with the window again, and I stared at it, wondering what kind of horror would be behind the curtains. No, I wasn't going to take a chance, I wasn't going to be stupid.

I ran out to the hallway, throwing on my shoe and glancing around for my coat. I finally found it on the couch, and pulled it on, now looking for my other shoe. I just needed a few more seconds. I wasn't going to be dumb like everyone else and stick around or investigate, I was going to get the heck out of dodge. I ain't afraid of no ghost, but I wasn't going to be sucked into some crazy prank. There was a wet plopping noise, and my heart skipped a beat as I swore I heard something moan.

I glanced around, but there was nothing there. The faucet in the kitchen suddenly turned back on. My eyes widened. They were already inside. Screw the shoe, going with only one on would work better for the Frankenstein look anyways. I dashed towards the door and threw it open, only to skid to a halt. Something was standing down the front steps, only a few feet away. I took a step back, confused.

The figure was misshapen, seeming to pulse and bob strangely every few seconds, the obscured moonlight gleaming off of them.

"Nice try but you don't scare me." I said, crossing my arms.

As soon as they turned and faced me, I'd bolt off the patio and out onto the street, Sora's house was probably the safest place to be right about now anyways. The figure turned around, the movement making a strange sloshing sound, but more importantly, setting off the motion sensor over the door. The light came on and I jumped back.

The figure was made of water. It looked humanoid, the shape was close enough to see that, but they were oozing and bobbing, entirely transparent.

"Brains…" It gurgled.

"Oh hell no."

It trudged towards me and I slammed the door in its face. Alright, I have to give it to XIII; that was pretty impressive, and very freaky. So, front door was out of commission, something was in the backyard, and something was in the kitchen. Options? Garage, or upstairs to my room, our families fire ladder could get me out into the neighbor's yard.

Zombie water people, the idea was pretty obvious. So I guess just stay away from water, and don't let them bite you. And since it was zombies, there was obviously going to be a lot of them. I'm not sure whether I was ecstatic or terrified. Zombies were cool, my dad kept a whole closet in the basement stocked with miniature armory, waiting for a zombie apocalypse. Zombie's made out of water, especially when I didn't have a flame thrower? Not so cool.

How did they even do that anyways? Strings, magnets? Club XIII was pulling out tricks and abilities I doubt anyone had ever imagined, I doubt anyone could really tell how they did it all. Stop admiring them and focus Hayner, you have to get out of here.

That's when I found out a neat thing about water zombies. Since their made from liquid, they can easily fit through cracks and hole, they don't need to break down doors or come crashing through windows. I swore as water leaked out from beneath the door, quickly pooling and rising up, a more solid massing starting to form.

"Brains…"

I ran, sprinting back and throwing open the garage door. I hit the button and the garage slowly started opening while I rushed for it. I came to a screeching halt after only a few steps. At least six more zombies were waiting, all slowly starting to trudge and lumber towards me.

"Brains…"

Alright, fire ladder escape it was. I turned around and dashed back inside, only to find the same zombie that had greeted me at the door. It swiped at me and I ducked, turning back and trying to go through the kitchen.

My breath caught in my throat as I ran in. There were at least eight in there, and more were being formed every second, coming out of the now overflowing sink. Not good. I whirled back into the hallway, managing to duck under the dripping arms and sprinting for the stairs. A wet hand caught me and I yelped, being pulled back by a surprisingly strong grip.

"Brains…" The zombie gurgled. The water zombies from the garage and kitchen were coming out now, gurgling the same message as they came towards me. The zombie that had caught me, pulling me in closer, a gaping mouth starting to appear.

"Let go of me!" I ripped away, charging towards the stairs. The zombie's arm stretched as I went, growing thinner and thinner as it got father away, before it lost is strength and turned into a puddle, splashing to the ground, only to quickly reform seconds later.

I stormed up the stairs, bolting into my room and slamming the door shut, pushing blankets and towels under the crack to try and hinder their progress. I threw open the window and leaned out, only to let out an unintentional scream as a zombie reared its head screaming "Brains!" I stumbled back, running into my dresser and falling on my butt, watching in horror as the thing pulled itself into my room.

No, I wasn't scared, I could handle this. I glanced around, eyes desperately searching for a weapon that could fight something like this. My eyes snapped to my garbage can, the only receptacle in the room that didn't have holes in it.

"Brains…" The zombie gasped as I grabbed the trash can and charged the abomination.

It gave a weak swing at me before I put the garbage can over its head and pushed down, slamming the bucket to the ground. The creature gave one last gurgle as it vanished from sight, trapped in the garbage can. I gave a sigh of relief, sitting on top of the can to keep it trapped, only to let out a yelp as the ones who had pursued me up the stairs started banging at my door, the call for brains getting louder. Water started leaking in from under the door and I gulped, turning to the window.

Ah hell, another one had already taken the place of the first. I needed another way to stop these things. This bucket thing had worked. I frowned when my sock suddenly became damp, glancing down in time to see the water leaking out from the overturned can. I had a split second to scream as a watery hand shot up, grabbing my face. I screamed, managing to tear away, only for the one on the sill to throw its arms around me, gurgling in my ear.

The one I had trapped reformed, along with all the others coming in.

"Brains!" They chorused, advancing on me. The one who had caught me pulled me back towards the window, and I frowned in confusion until it roughly pushed me towards the sill.

"You're not pushing me out a window!" I cried, trying to struggle.

It turns out I was wrong. The next second I was screaming as they threw me out the window, only to collide safely into the arms of a dozen other zombies.

"Brains…!"

I thrashed and struggled, but the water was surprisingly taught, movement was impossible. The zombies carried me started moving, trudging slowly into the back yard, towards the pool. What did this have to do with brains?

"Brains…" A human voice said. I glanced up, the world upside down from my perspective.

A black cloaked figure stood beside what had once been a pool. The figure was scary enough as it was, but it was the fact that my pool had been transformed into a giant version of my head, warped and pulsing in the now bright moonlight that made me scream.

"Brains…" The giant head moaned.

"You heard what it wants." The figure said, making a grand gesture and motioning the zombies forward. They slowly advanced, and panic started to rise up inside me. Prank or not this wasn't cool.

"This isn't funny. Come on guys, put me down!"

My response would probably surprise you, it may even astound you with the level of depth and thought put into the remark; "Brains…" Incredible, right?

I couldn't help but scream as the zombies stopped in front of the giant head and the figure stepped forward, pulling out a card. Had they written a speech?

"For the horrible crimes against XIII you committed, you and your thirteen comrades have been sentenced to a punishment befitting of the crime in the eyes of us, your judges, jury, and executioners. You went on to assist XIII's arch-nemesis in constructing the plan that harmed him in the first place, making you one of the most guilty of all those involved. To this end-"

"You know the others were way scarier."

The figure stopped reading and looked up.

"Scarier? What are you talking about, you were just screaming your head off. What's scarier than a bunch of zombie's man?"

I shrugged.

"Yeah the zombies are scary, but it's the whole giant head and you reading a speech that kind of ruins it."

"The speech adds poetic irony, its sentencing you for your crime, it's my dramatic flair. I even had Marly help me write it out! And what do you mean the heads not scary? It's going to eat you and you'll be the brain, that's the punishment, forced to be a zombies brain, how is that not terrifying? I know it'd be scared."

"Yeah, it's just not doing it for me."

"Oh come on, do you know how hard I worked on this? You don't know man, the work I had to do to get these stupid things to come to life-"

"Is this your first time or something? I mean really, if you had enough time to make a speech and everything, you really should have thought this through more."

"What? No, it's all just-"

"And arguing with a victim, that's just kind of lame, I mean really, you're supposed to be scary, and right now Caspar the friendly ghost is more terrifying."

"Hey watch it, I spent ages getting things just right, and I-"

"No this is just pathetic, I mean really, this is the best you could do? Maybe if you just shut up and threw me in that would have been better, but this is just sad."

The figures head drooped for a second, and they stared at the ground. Everything was silent, the zombies stared straight ahead, still holding me, the night still and peaceful. Finally the figure looked up, raising an arm and pointing accusingly at me. This time when they spoke, their tone was dead, the casual whining gone. This time I shivered when they spoke.

"Silence traitor. You want to be scared? Well try this on."

They snapped their fingers and the pool liquefied again, losing its shape.

"Have a ball boys, come get me when you're done." The figure ordered, marching off.

I frowned for a second, uncomprehending, only for the zombies holding me to suddenly rush forward, throwing themselves and me into the water.

I had one second to yelp with surprise and take a deep breath before I was dragged under. Strong currents buffeted me, pushing me further and further down. I tried to get back to the surface, but the current just pushed me further and further down into the frigid water.

This wasn't funny anymore, this was really scary. I couldn't hold my breath much longer guys, it was time to let me up. My lungs were burning, and finally my mouth shot open involuntarily, water rushing in, burning my already tender lungs.

This wasn't okay anymore, it was time to stop. But the water just kept coming. I was drowning. My vision was starting to go blurry, I raised my arm, and through my panicked haze, realized that it was going transparent. My whole body was starting to disappear as my vision darkened, my skin and clothes liquefying.

I had another few seconds to scream, sending out a few measly air bubbles, saying goodbye to the last of my precious air. There was a ripping sensation inside me, and the last thing I saw was my body pulling away from itself and vanishing before everything went black.

* * *

><p>Something collided with my chest, and I gasped for life, rocketing up and spitting out pool water.<p>

"He's alive!" I heard someone- Pence- shout in relief. Arms wrapped around me, and I instinctively recoiled, only to relax when I realized it was just Olette.

"What did he do to you? I was in the kitchen when he just appeared, and the next thing I knew I was on the other side of the neighborhood. I tried to call you back after I lost the connection, but I didn't get anything. Pence and I found you floating in the pool."

"The idiot got angry and tried to drown me." I gasped, taking a breath full of sweet, sweet oxygen.

Pence and Olette gasped in shock.

"They got all three of us. At least we know they won't get us again. Are you okay?"

I managed a nod, and checked myself over. My costume was ruined, my green skin paint running off and bleeding out, my skin clearly showing underneath. My jacket had been replaced with a design similar to the one Pooh Bear Pence and Rag Doll Olette were wearing, covered in thorns. Mine was different though, having the Roman Numeral IX and the words "This guy is a total douchebag spoil sport, he is _sooo_ guilty."

"Well exciting as that was, I want to get out of here. Let's get to Sora's if we get everybody together there's not as much of a chance that anybody else will get pranked." I managed, sitting up.

This prank was different, it had started off well but had taken a dark turn. Not all these were just 'harmless' pranks meant for publicity. Some of these were for revenge, and not just for XIII, the one who supposedly everyone had hurt. The night wasn't over, and I doubted that this game of revenge was either.

Things were about to get even worse.

x-X-x

"You drowned him!?" Roxas asked, eyes bugging out of his head.

"Almost, I said I almost drowned him. The jerk was being a total tool, bagged on all my hard work, and I…" I trailed off, taking a step away as Roxas reached up towards my neck, hands clawed and shaking before letting out an aggravated groan and face palming.

"Demyx, remind me to kill you later. I have to go finish up with the clues, Sora's going to need them if he ever wants to find me. If you pull something stupid and reckless like that with my boyfriend when he gets here, or any of my friends ever again…" Roxas let the threat hang in the air, before stomping away.

"Shrimps got a temper, I miss that. He was so tame and boring back at Christmas, this totally makes up for everything."

I gave Larxene a skeptical look.

"Roxy's acting all crazy and you're happy about that? This whole things been psycho, don't you think we might be going kind of far?"

Larxene gave me a sideways glancing, pounding another Lightning Rod.

"Dem, you threw a temper tantrum a few minutes ago because somebody didn't think you were scary enough and tried to drown them. You're psycho. Everyone here is psycho. Roxas is just finally accepting that fact, and letting it out in a healthy way. Well, kind of. Axel and I have a better way of accepting it out, we just let our freak out whenever we sleep together, put up with a few bruises, bite marks, burns, and permanent Taser damage to testicles and we're all good."

"I didn't need that image in my head Larx."

"And I didn't need the image of a dom Zexion teacher and an innocent schoolgirl you."

"There's nothing wrong with a little role-play in a relationship."

"There is if you're wearing my skirt."

"You're such a drama queen that was one time!"

"Demyx, Larxene!"

Our heads snapped up, seeing Xemnas standing in the doorway to the club.

"Get in here, the crowd would love to see more of its benefactors."

We both grinned and stood up, making our way inside the club, the sound of music, screaming, and cheering clearly audible from three blocks away.

We came in through the back way, coming out onto the stage along with the other members who had already taken care of their victims. The crowd went wild when they saw us, dancing and jumping in the flashing lights. I smiled and waved, gladly striking a pose for a few fans with cameras.

This was turning out to be one hell of a Halloween.

* * *

><p><strong>Almost done now, we're almost there, just stick with me a little longer! Hope your having a BOO-tiful night!<strong>


	11. 9 PM-Riku

**Disclaimer; I don't own the rights to Kingdom Hearts. But I am asking for them or Christmas. And my birthday. And Easter. Any holiday where you receive gifts really. **

* * *

><p><strong>9 P.M. Riku<strong>

I wasn't happy right now. Then again, I really wasn't that happy in general. Ever since I had been shot down my Sora last Christmas, my ego had taken a major pounding, and my social life had suddenly taken a plunge, while that dweeb Roxas shot up, going from nobody to celebrity in three seconds flat. The only thing that really made it bearable was that I at least had Kairi.

Yeah she wasn't Sora, but honestly, I think I was happier knowing that she wasn't. Sora was great and all, but Kairi and I just clicked. I probably would have just dumped Sora later on anyways. But now here I was, sitting in a chair at Sora's house, being bored out of my mind. So far there weren't many people here, and all the members of our 'gang' that were present were people I didn't care about.

Sora wasn't even here, probably still pining after his boy toy. I felt bad for the kid, devoting himself to a broken loser like Roxas, but hey, it was his life, if he wanted to waste it trying to fix things with him, then that was his choice. But more importantly, Kairi wasn't here. I had called her earlier to talk about picking her up, but she had just acted all weird and hung up on me, texting that she'd just meet me here.

And yet, here I was. Alone.

"Hey Riku." Somebody in a dumb costume called, waving to me. I gave a grunt in their general direction, leaning back in my chair.

Some party this was turning out to be. A few more minutes went by, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette came crashing in, all wearing the same weird shirt and in lame costumes. What were they, an ugly doll, a hack job Frankenstein, and Pooh Bear- honestly, what were they, five years old?

I rolled my eyes, glancing into the kitchen where I could see Terra and Aqua huddled up together. They were in some kind of caped armor, their helmets lying on the counter beside them as they whispered back and forth.

This was so boring. Honestly, what had I done to deserve this kind of treatment? I angrily pulled out my phone and texted Kairi, telling her to hurry up or call me. A few seconds later, my phone buzzed, and I glanced down at her response.

"Meet me downtown at the abandoned lot next to Hollow Bastion, now."

It was about time. What was she doing downtown though?

"I'm going to go pick up Kairi." I said, plowing over Olette and Pence's greetings and walking out the door.

I hopped into my car, started up the engine, and was pulling out when I saw the trio rushing after me, looking panicked, pointing at their phones and shirts. Weirdoes. I raced away from the curb, engine growling as I raced through the streets.

The abandoned lot wasn't abandoned when I got pulled up. The usually barren dirt lot now had a single small building shaped like an octagon from what I could see. A large sign over the entrance read 'Club XIII's House of Mirrors!"

Huh, the cross like symbol that made up the center I looked awfully familiar. I could see a dark figure in a cloak leaning up against the doors, head bent down unmoving. Must be Kairi. She must have put it on over her princess costume, it was getting cold out. I gave a honk, and the figure looked up. I motioned for her to come on over, but she didn't move. Instead she made her own beckoning motion, slow and seductive.

I sighed, pulling the keys out of the ignition and hopping out.

"Kairi the parties started already, we have to get going."

The Kairi just crossed her arms, waiting expectantly.

"Really babe? Do you want me to come and get you or something? Why are you down here anyways?"

Kairi didn't respond. She just waited. Finally I threw my hands up in exasperation, slamming my door shut and walking over.

"You alright? You know if you just wanted to skip the party you can just say so, the scene's lame anyways."

I walked right up to her, and she stared up at me, face hidden in shadows. She carefully reached behind her and pushed open the doors, taking me by the shirt collar and pulling me with her as she backed into the House of Mirrors.

"Are we allowed in here?" I asked, glancing around.

Cloud had manipulated his cop boyfriend Leon into getting me charged with all the damages at the Christmas party last year, and I wasn't keen on having a repeat encounter with the Destiney Island Police Department.

Kairi leaned up, her face still completely shrouded in shadow and whispered "Does it matter?"

She placed a slow, chaste kiss on my cheek, before chuckling and turning on her heel, vanishing into the darkness.

"Kairi!"

I walked in after her, trying to see in the darkness, only for the doors to slam shut behind me, all light vanishing from the room.

"What the hell? Kairi, where are you babe?"

A dark chuckle echoed eerily around the room. Dull, muted green light slowly came into focus, enough to see a few feet around me, and I looked around, seeing hundreds of other Riku's all staring around, looking irritated and confused.

"Damn I'm hot." I murmured, giving myself a quick check over in my skin tight Dark Form suit, before looking around for a way to move around.

"Kairi?"

I saw her black cloak to my left and made my way over, only to find a mirror. I frowned, feeling around and taking a left, and then a right, and another left, following the black cloaked Kairi. I made another turn, and suddenly there was only the image of Kairi in the mirrors, I was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on babe, I'm into mirrors and watching myself have fun, but I'm not in the mood right now, let's get out of here."

"Three years and you're still as much of an arrogant prick as I remember." She said, placing her hands on her hips. Wait, that wasn't Kairi's voice.

"What are you talking about?"

The Kairi directly ahead of me pulled back their hood, revealing someone who definitely wasn't my girlfriend.

"Zexion? What the hell man?"

"And you're vocabulary hasn't increased either, wonderful. Expecting somebody else?"

"Where's Kairi?"

"That jezebel of yours is most likely still at her home preparing for her big reveal. I just wanted to have a nice little chat with you without any of your entourage getting in the way. How've you been? We haven't really talked since you dumped me."

Oh yeah right. I had dated the emo loser back in freshman year, trying to get Sora's attention by 'reaching out to the poor unfortunate souls of society'. Long story short, it hadn't worked, and the idiot was stupid enough to think that I actually cared about him. He hadn't exactly been happy when I dumped him out of the blue, I think I heard something about him attempting suicide or something, I never really paid attention after I left him.

The kid had had it out for me ever since, he and all his little freak show friends, Roxas included.

"Is that what this about? You want to get me in here and talk about that, beg me to take you back, complain to me about how much your life sucks, is that it?"

A look of deep hurt flashed in those grey eyes of his, showing a scar that had never really healed, not until tonight, before he steeled himself and crossed his arms, glaring at me. Funny, he was the only one moving, every other reflection of him was staying perfectly still.

"No. I've wanted closure for a long time, because you never gave it to me. I moved on a long time ago, I found someone real, someone who cares for me. If it wasn't for him, I would be dead right now, all because of you."

"Oh yeah, how is that loser? It's Demyx right? Man, did you really fall for somebody like him? The kids lucky if he's missing half a brain, he's almost as retarded as you were back then."

"No, Demyx isn't the brightest bulb around. But that doesn't matter. He's caring, thoughtful, creative, talented, resourceful, and more of a man that you could ever dream to be. I'm lucky to have him. I'm here for one reason and one reason only; to make sure that what you did to me never happens to anyone else."

I scoffed and turned around, feeling around for the exit. To my shock, one of the reflections suddenly came forward and pushing me, before returning to its unmoving state while I stumbled back. What the?

"You almost killed one of my best friends you know. Roxas would have died last Christmas Eve if Sora hadn't gone after him. He would have frozen to death. But that doesn't matter to you, does it? You're over Sora, he doesn't matter, nothing matters to you expect yourself. You don't care who you hurt, you don't care what damage you wreak, you only care about you."

"That's not true. I care about my friends, and I care about my girlfriend, I love her."

"Of course you do" Zexion said, his tone entirely disbelieving "Until tomorrow when someone hotter comes along, or maybe until suddenly she's not on your level of popularity anymore. Then it's out with the old and in with the new. I wonder what she's going to do when you dump her, when you tear her heart out of her chest and stomp on it."

"Will you shut up? I'm not going to dump Kairi, and I am not that shallow. I just know when to trade up and when to not settle for second best."

"Oh I know. You've done a lot of trading up these past three years, they can all attest to that."

One of the hooded figures pulled back their hood, revealing Selphie.

"Do you remember that romantic date to the beach we went on, the one where you brought me those pretty lilacs that matched my dress? Because I do. I remember it because that's the day you saw that whore over there and dumped me."

Selphie pointed across the room and another hooded figure pulled off their hood, revealing Rikku.

"Who are you calling a whore, you slept with him after one date. And don't even get me started on this narcissistic hog, the only reason we were together for so long was because he liked being able to say his own name whenever we were making out."

Another figure, Tidus pulled back his hood.

"Yeah, you're a real douche man. I was new to the Islands and I just wanted somebody to show me around, then you went and ruined my life."

"Hey, you said you wanted me to do it!" I argued, but the others silenced me.

"Yeah, I wanted somebody to be with, I didn't want somebody to push me out of the closet in front of my uncle and then post pictures all over school!"

More of my exes were starting to appear, more and more people pulling back their hoods, all yelling their hate at me.

"Shut up!" I screamed, but they just got louder and started pushing me around.

"Can you hear that Riku? Do you see all the pain you've caused? But you still don't care, do you? Because we still haven't hurt the one person you care about the most. You want to know what is going to happen to you as you get older, what you're going to become because of the monster you chose to be?"

Some of my exes charged forward, grabbing me and propelling me towards Zexion. I struggled and flailed, punching wildly, before Zexion stepped out of the mirror, glowing in an aura of light the same eerie green as the light.

"This is what you're going to be."

He grabbed my head in his hands, and my world exploded in pain.

I collapsed in pain, and the mirrors around me shattered, everyone vanishing. I wheezed and coughed, suddenly feeling weak and shaky. I managed to lift my head up, neck protesting at the movement, but there was no one around now.

I let my head droop, confused at my suddenly blurry vision. I blinked a few times, trying to clear it, but it wouldn't go away. I frowned when I finally was able to see, realizing that the muscled skin of my outfit had changed colors, the Roman numeral VI being placed over my heart and the words "I committed the crimes, I will do the time. Like the Beast, until I find one who truly can love me, I will always remain truly ugly." What?

"What is this, some kind of lame joke?" I called out, taunting Zexion. My frown deepened when I heard my voice. It sounded all wrong, squeaky and weak. That wasn't how my voice sounded. Movement caught my eye, and I glanced into the mirror, flinching back in disgust when I saw a disgusting looking creature on the floor. It had wrinkled, loose skin, liver spots, no hair, its nose was crooked and its eyes were too close together. It looked frail and weathered, and its skin was disgustingly pale and flabby, and the more I watched it shake and quiver, the more I wanted to barf.

"Disgust, what is that?" I called.

The creature copied my movements. Oh. No, that couldn't be what I thought it was, right? Hesitantly, I forced my arm up, fighting the pain and weariness of my limbs. The abominable creature slowly raised its own gnarled limb, fingers clumped and twisted.

"What's on the inside is on the outside now." Zexion's voice whispered. "And it will stay that way until someone accepts the true you, whoever is able to change the true you. Whoever that is, I pity them. Goodbye forever Riku."

All I heard after that was the sound of him walking away over the shattered glass, my wheezing breath echoing around the room as I stared at my reflection, horror going through me as I stared at the creature.

A single, dirty tear escaped the corner of my eye as I watched, watched the monster heave and sob, before finally screaming. Because that's what I was, what I finally realized I was. A monster.

x-X-x

"Riku came to pick me up? But I never sent a text." Kairi said.

She was wearing a blonde wig, which she was constantly adjusting and pulling at. Honestly if she stopped messing with it I doubted anyone would even realize that it wasn't real. And besides it didn't really matter, everyone already knew what price she had paid in her prank.

Hayner shook his head.

"No he's been claimed as a victim, his name went up as he was leaving. We tried to warn him but he just drove off."

Terra sighed and glanced over at the clock.

"Great, that's one more person missing. Leon and Cloud are going to be just peachy when we tell them I lost their brothers. I haven't seen Roxas since last night, and Sora's been missing all day."

"We got a call from Sora earlier, he was saying something about Roxas being kidnapped actually." Naminè explained.

Everyone started murmuring worriedly, wondering what could have happened to the two.

"So who are we missing?" Aqua asked, glancing around.

"Well like we just said, Sora and Roxas are gone." Olette said.

"I saw Vanitas earlier today, but no one's heard from him since" Terra offered "And Ventus is at the store right now getting cake. Riku left and was pranked, nobody's heard from him since, and Cloud and Leon don't get off work for another hour."

"Alright, so I suppose we could just split into groups and go looking for them, I mean it can't be that hard to find-"

"Uh guys, we've got a problem!" Pence called.

Everybody turned to face Pence, who was holding a piece of paper. It had a simple message written in black ink, only one sentence, nothing else, and yet it was enough to terrify everyone more than anything they had gone through that day.

"If you ever want to see Sora and Roxas alive, come to the World that Never was before the clock strikes midnight."

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><p><strong>Yeah that was pretty tame, but I'm tired, and I still have three chapters and only one day left, so don't be hating. Have a miserably mummy Halloween!<strong>


	12. 10 PM-Cloud

**Disclaimer; I don't own the rights to Kingdom Hearts, but after I take over the world with my army of flying monkeys and ninja munchkins, I will.**

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><p><strong>10 P.M. Cloud<strong>

Someone was stalking me. I'm not sure when I really noticed it, but at some point I just simply realized the fact. I couldn't see whoever it was, I would only catch flashes of them as I worked and made delivers. I had just finished putting Snow's bike back together when I thought I saw something running in the corner of my eye. I glanced up, but the empty repair shop was as deserted as ever.

Ever since Uncle Cid had broken his leg fixing a client's car, I had gone from mechanic to manager, taking on as many shifts as possible to keep the shop going until he got back. I was fine with it, really, but it was starting to get a little exhausting. Cid was a master engineer and mechanic, he could take on as many projects with only a few guys on staff do back him up and come out shining. I was struggling just to keep up with our basic quota.

I stared out the garage door for a while, looking out at the dark night, before getting up and walking over, pressing the button, forcing the enormous door shut. I wasn't in the mood for trouble tonight. I glanced up at the clock on the wall, sighing when I saw it was already almost ten. Time to close up, I had made promises with Ventus, Roxas, and Leon that I would be at the party with them tonight.

A break from all this would be nice, and besides, I needed to check on Roxas. I don't know how I was dumb enough to forget about what had happened to him after our parents death, he had been broken for weeks afterwards. Sora always managed to fix Roxy, I had actually been starting to use him as a crutch to help out when Roxas went through his depression swings, but since Sora had been the mastermind behind everything, I wasn't sure how happy he was on top of it.

But depressed and scared didn't make up for the fact that when I had gone to talk with him this morning, he had been gone and his window had been wide open. The brat had ran away, bless his heart. Sora had sworn to search the island top to bottom while I was forced to rush off to work, but I hadn't gotten a call from either all day, and I had to admit that I was worried.

I started cleaning up, wiping oil and grease of me and grabbing my costume from my locker; a leather warrior outfit, simple enough. I turned out all the lights, locked up, and walked out, securing the door as I walked out.

Sure, everything was hard work, but honestly I was secretly proud that Cid had trusted me to take over for him. Then again Cid was also the one who argued that I was old enough to take care of my brothers after my parents died and helped support us through the time afterwards. Good old Cid. I'd have to stop by tomorrow and give him some candy or something, see how the old bulldog was doing.

Something howled in the distance, and I glanced around, surprised at how realistic the sound was. People were stepping up this Halloween, maybe this year I'd actually get scared. I rounded the corner to the parking lot, pulling out the keys to Fenrir and hopping on the cold seat. I started her up and revved the engine, the lights kicking on full blast.

I had a few seconds to realize that there was someone standing in front of me, suddenly painfully illuminated in the lights of my motorcycle. I stared at the dark figure for a second, the two of us seemingly trapped in a bubble where time had stopped.

And then the figure pounced on me. They tackled me off the bike and we went rolling, brute strength pushing me down. I went in for a kidney punch, earning a whimper and rolling on top for a second, kicking them as hard as I could and jumping to my feat.

They yelped loudly, rolling to their own feet and charged me, flying at me with incredible speed. I managed to dodge the attack, bringing my fist up to their neck to knock them to the ground. I sword when instead they skidded to a halt, grabbed my arm, and sunk their teeth in. I punched the figure in the head and neck, finally managing to dislodge them, cradling my arm as they fell to the ground in a heap.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked.

The figure's coat bulged and moaned, and I frowned, finally nudging it with my foot. Something blue suddenly shot out, running to the edge of the lot. I jumped back, eyes flashing to keep up, and stared in confusion when a pure blue wolf came to a stop under the parking lots lone stoplight. They looked back at me, appraising me with amber eyes, before running off, vanishing into the dark night.

They had been a wolf…? That did work, it had been standing up, the thing had punched me, hell it had been wearing a cloak. Wolves couldn't do that. I gasped as a cold flash suddenly ripped through my arm, and I glanced down at the bleeding appendage. Like it or not, that was definitely a dog bite. I sighed and walked back to the shop, unlocking the door and turning on the life, trying to remember where I packed the med kit.

After I finished cleaning and binding the mark, I started back to the door, frowning and flexing my arm. The cold had spread all the way up to the tips of my fingers, and was spreading out from my shoulder now. Was this how rabies felt? Maybe I should go to the hospital tonight instead of tomorrow. I walked over to turn the lights off again, glancing at my reflection in a mirror as I passed and frowning. Damn I needed a shave, my chin and neck were coated in thick hair.

My frown deepened as I caught sight of my eyes. My usually dark blue orbs weren't the same, the left one suddenly had a smidge of yellow on the outside. How had I gotten something in my eye and not noticed it? Went closer and pulled my eyelid down, studying the eye for a few seconds, before letting go, worried. A hospital run might really be necessary. I clenched my fist, flinching in surprise when sharp nails probed at my skin.

On examination, the nails I usually kept trimmed down to a minimal to keep out oil, grime, and dirt, were long, ragged, and sharp. How had that happened? I know I had only just trimmed them the other day, I usually had a week or two in-between when I had to cut them, and they never grew like this.

Damn there was a lot of hair on my arms. And my chest, and my back to. Man I really was a mess, I looked like a frigging bear. The cold had spread through my whole body now. I was still debating on whether or not to call Leon and have him pick me up and take me to the hospital when a dizzy spell suddenly came at me, hitting hard.

I wobbled, caching onto a work table for support and breathing hard. Yep, time to call Leon and have him take me to the hospital. I reached into my costume pocket and pulled out my phone, speed dialing my boyfriend.

"Officer Leonhart here, how can I help you?"

"Hey Leon it's me. Listen, I just got bit by a… wolf, and I'm not feeling too hot. I know you're not off shift yet but do you think you could come do a hospital run, I just had a dizzy spell and I'm not interested in having another while I'm on my bike."

"You got bit by a wolf? I'm headed there right now, sit tight and describe to me what happened."

"I had just locked up the shop, I went out and started up Fenrir" I stopped for a second, scratching a sudden strong in itch in my side before going on "This is the part where it gets weird, but I swear I'm not high or drunk. I turn on the lights and all of the sudden there's this psycho in black who jumps at me, we struggle, and the dude bits me, falls to the ground, and a wolf runs off instead of a guy."

"Wait, did you say psycho in black?"

Alright so I wasn't being ridiculed for the figure turning into a wolf, this was definitely progress.

"Yeah, black cloak, gloves, boots, and all. I never saw a face, but they felt solid enough when we rolled around, not some dog. I know it sounds crazy, but-"

"It's not crazy, I'll be right there, just hold on."

Leon hung up and I raised an eyebrow, staring down at my phone. That wasn't crazy? Huh, I definitely had a keeper, anyone who would blindly believe somebody like that had to be loyal and trustworthy. Or it could mean that he was just as crazy too, but oh well, I loved him anyways. I moaned as the cold sudden sharpened, starting in my arm and flowing through my whole body.

My phone clattered to the floor and I pressed my hands to the side of my head, trying to stop the room from suddenly spinning again. What the heck had that dog done to me? I stumbled up to a wall and slid down, putting my head between my knees and taking deep breaths trying to get under control.

Wait a second, what had happened to my costume? The leather had survived the scuffle unscathed, but now it was no longer pure black. The Roman numeral VII was imprinted in lazy scrawl, along with the words "I betrayed the trust of somebody I loved!"

What the hell? I didn't have much time to think about it, I moaned again as my head started spinning again. Ungh, my face felt all wrong, cold and misshapen. I felt it, frowning when I realized just how hairy I was. It felt like I had a full beard going on right now, only it covered my whole face. What was going on? I glanced down at my arms, only to do a double take. They were covered in coarse fur, ugly claws jutting out from my fingertips.

I was hallucinating right, this must just be a side effect of the rabies or whatever the wolf had passed along when it bit me.

I pushed myself to my feet, my whole body numb at this point, and forced myself over to the mirror. I stared in shock at my appearance. Both my eyes were bright amber, my nose was black and seeming to bulge forward, my face was covered in thick blonde hair, hair that was spread out across my whole body.

I looked like a freaking werewolf, what had happened to me? The full moon suddenly glinted in the mirror behind me, light pretty and bright, and pain coursed through my head, dropping me to my knees. No way, this wasn't possible, I couldn't be turning into a werewolf. They weren't real. This was just some effect of the rabies or whatever. I tried standing up again, feeling strange. It didn't feel right to be standing up like this, it felt wrong.

I moaned, letting my head fall onto the table, before glancing up, eyes widening as I saw my face distorting, a snout pushing its way out of my face. No. I groaned, and so did the thing in the mirror, amber eyes shining in agony as it struggled to lift itself. Another few seconds went by and the thing no longer looked like some hideous amalgamation of man and wolf, it was merely a blonde wolf.

I recoiled, falling to the ground and trying to scramble up, only to stare down in shock at my four legs, all ending in paws. This wasn't possible, it just wasn't, how? I pushed to my feet, going around in a circle and checking myself over, nearly toppling in the process, unused to walking like this. I really was a wolf, my paws were there and everything, I even had a tale.

Werewolves were real? No way, this just wasn't real! I groaned, the sound coming out as a high pitched whine. My ears flicked forward as the sound of a car approached the garage, the engine shutting off and a car door opening and slamming shut.

"Cloud?" Leon's voice called.

Oh crap. I was a wolf, what was Leon going to do when he saw a wolf in the shop? Forget Leon, what was I going to do, I was the one who had turned into a wolf! I scrambled into a corner, trying to hide as Leon walked in. He glanced around, before spotting my cellphone on the ground and running over, picking it up and looking around again worriedly.

"Cloud? You here? Where are you, listen whatever's happening right now isn't real, trust me!"

Easy for you to say, you're not the one who's going to get fleas! Leon looked around again, and an unintentional whimper escaped my mouth and Leon's eyes snapped to my corner.

"Cloud?"

Alright hiding didn't work, time for a new plan. I dashed out of the corner, running past him and out onto the street. Being a werewolf only lasted until the full moon was gone, right? Well as soon as tomorrow came I'd be right as rain, I'd come home, and we'd all freak out together and be one big happy family.

But then Leon came running after me.

"Cloud, stop running, come back!"

Huh, he was pretty smart, how had he figured out I was the wolf? I let out a howl and kept running, pushing myself faster. I had so much energy, I had to keep going.

Leon suddenly managed to appear in front of me, and I skidded to a halt, whining and growling. Leon recoiled, studying me intently.

"Cloud, how do you feel? Can you understand me?"

Of course I can understand you, we've got bigger issues that a language barrier right not buddy!

"Cloud, just lie down, I'm going to get you to a hospital and everything will be alright. Okay?"

Not okay, I knew what they did to werewolves on television. They cut them open and used them for science experiments, put them in vampire combat rings (there were werewolves, there had to be vampires), and I wasn't going to be a part of any of that. Sorry Leon, I'm out of here. I dashed away, glancing back in time to see Leon pulling out his gun.

Fear sparked through me and I started running back and forth, freaking out. My boyfriend was going to shoot me! I howled angrily at him, making a mad dash for an alley. I heard a trigger being pulled and pain blistered through my body, before everything went numb and my eyes fell shut.

x-X-x

I stared down at my boyfriend, eyes wide. Yeah, I had just Tasered my boyfriend, but he had been acting crazy. He was a victim of another prank, his costume was evidence enough for that, and judging by the fact that he was making a bunch of wolf noises, and had been attacked by some sort of wolf, I had to guess that I was right.

When I had managed to stop him, his eyes had been extremely dilated; they probably used some kind of drug or alcohol to make him susceptible to their tricks.

"I'm sorry Cloud, I really am. Let's get you to the hospital."

I brought the car around and pulled Cloud in the back, struggling with his weight before slamming the door and hopping in the driver's seat.

"This has gone far enough." I muttered heading for the hospital. I was done playing games. After I drove my boyfriend to the hospital, it would be time for Roxas and I to have a little chat.

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><p><strong>Two more and an epilogue, hope you're loving it! Have a undying time tonight!<strong>


	13. 11 PM-Ventus

**Disclaimer; I do not own Halloween, or Kingdom Hearts, but I'll take them over eventually. **

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><p><strong>11 P.M. Ventus<strong>

The night was cold as I stalked through town, wrapping my cape tightly around me. As incredible as the knight armor Terra, Aqua, and I had chosen to wear this Halloween, it did little to defend against the gnawing cold. At his rate, I was going to seriously be surprised if we didn't have another white Christmas this year. The islands never got this cold.

I trudged past a few stores, heading for the one grocery store that was still open. Kairi had been in charge of one thing, one little thing, to bring a cake for the part. And so of course, I was out here going through town at this godforsaken hour, trying to find a store that sill had sweets left.

Honestly, we all knew this was coming, why hadn't we been smart enough to buy a backup cake? I huffed, my breath misting in the night air. I sighed in relief when I saw the store, forcing my limbs to start jogging, trying to get my blood flowing and warm again.

Once I took care of this, Cloud, Leon, Vanitas, Sora, and Roxas should finally have arrived and the party could really start. I honestly was ticked off with Vanitas right now, my boyfriend had been ignoring my texts and calls all day.

Of course, that was kind of just one of the perks that came with being with Vanitas, our relationship went from hot too cold at a moment's notice. He had gotten through to me today, getting me to stop worrying about Roxas.

Yeah we had really screwed things up, but right now he just needed space. If we gave him some time he'd be more willing to listen and forgive later on. Right now though, he was still in the 'I-hate-the-world-so-screw-you-too!' phase, it wasn't a good time to try and reconcile.

I was almost to the door when a black blur raced out from the alley ahead, dashing towards me. I came to a halt, trying to backpedal as they came at me. And then they were running past, slapping a gloved hand against the back of my neck and sprinting on, being swallowed up by the night.

I stared after them for a long time, hand on my neck, the skin burning from the unexpected contact. Who the heck was that? I shook it off, frowning as the burning sensation prevailed, and walked to the door.

A bell went off as I went in, a dark haired girl with ninja star earrings glancing up, bored expression on her face.

"Hello and welcome to Buy Morr, Happy Halloween." She said, voice monotone.

"Hey, do you have any cakes left? I'll take anything at this rate, I just need to get going."

The girl shrugged with disinterest. "If we have anything, it would be in the bakery. Go wild kid."

"Thanks."

The girl just went back to examining her nails, checking them over in the light while I walked to the back of the store. My whole night suddenly felt worthwhile as I saw a beautiful chocolate cake on the counter. It was huge, with chocolate frosting and an orange pumpkin on top made of caramelized sugar, the words "Happy Halloween!" written in squiggly black and green frosting.

I smiled victoriously as I pulled it off the counter and marched back to the front counter, gently setting down my prize and pulling out some munny. She accepted it, shoving the money into the register and handing me a bag and receipt.

"Um, I should have some change."

The girl glared at me.

"I've been working this shift for the last nine hours with no break, and I don't get to leave until two A.M., are you really going to make me go through all that work for a few measly bucks?"

"No." I said hastily.

The girl beamed.

"Then we'll get along just fine kiddo. Happy Halloween, have a great night! Nice tattoo by the way."

I frowned as I picked up the cake.

"Tattoo?"

"The one on your neck, it's righteous. Who'd you get it from?"

I never got a tattoo, what was she going on about? I glanced up at a mirror over the counter, advertising its crystal clarity, studying my neck. Apparently I was wrong. A blistering red symbol arched and twined over the back of my neck, its pattern matching the places where my skin burned.

My thoughts went back to the figure who had slapped me as they ran by before vanishing into the night. Was it some kind of prank tattoo, one of those peel on things they made nowadays? I reached up and picked at the skin, trying to find a hitch or a mark but there was nothing.

"Fine act all weird. I appreciate the company and all, but you can go no."

I jumped nervously, glancing back at the girl before rushing out the door. This had better was off or fade fast otherwise Cloud would kill me. I was already grounded until I turned eighteen in two more years, if Cloud thought I had a tattoo he would bury me alive and dance on my grave.

I jogged back through town, my armor clanking as I went. Right now I'd just rush back to the party, hand over the cake, and then lock myself in the bathroom and scrub until this vanished.

"A penny for the poor?" A weak voice called out.

I slowed down, glancing around until I saw the speaker, an old women dressed in rags, huddled up in a cardboard box. A cup was shakily extended in her outstretched hand, eyes pleading. Poor thing, it had to be really cold out tonight. I walked over, pulling out a few pieces of munny and dropping them in the cup and pulling off my cape, draping it over my shoulders.

"Bless you." She murmured, smiling a grateful, toothy grin.

"I'm sorry I can't do more. Stay warm tonight. There's a homeless shelter not far from here, I could help you if you'd like."

"That would be nice…" She said, struggling to push herself up.

I reached down to help, but her eyes snapped to my neck, and she screeched, falling back and crawling away, pointing a gnarled finger at me.

"He bears the mark of the Firehawk!"

"What?"

The old woman's eyes widened in terror, looking around and sniffing the air, their whole body trembling now.

"I smell the smoke already, it's coming for you child, flee, flee!"

"What's coming for me, what are you talking about?"

"The Firehawk, the demon of the night! A tortured soul, trapped in Hell, his only escape is when someone bears his rune, his symbol of power. When a living being bears the mark, he flies out from hell, eager to let lose his torments on the unfortunate soul. Only in the sanctity of a home are you safe, go, run child, and don't look back!"

I did just that. Not because I was scared of the demon thing, but because the lady was obviously senile, and a worked up psycho is never a good thing. I didn't stop until I reached the neighborhood. I was panting hard, and my limbs were crying out to me, unused to having to lug the added weight of armor around.

The crazy lady was long gone now, I should be safe. I took a few deep breaths, before I heard a loud boom overhead. I look up in time to see what looked like a firework blasting up from the other side of the island, climbing higher and higher.

"Sweet!" A Halloween firework show? Everyone would flip out, this was great.

I watched as the crimson light trailed up into the sky, waiting for the big bang. But it never came. Instead, it started coming back down, veering away, and my heart stopped as I realized it was barreling down towards me at breakneck speed.

I dropped the cake, sprinting away as the firework shot down, crashing into the road, the asphalt cracking and shattering. I stared at the large crater in the street now, a trail of fire leading up to a strange, boulder like object. Who had launched that thing? I could have died!

I cautiously advanced, picking up the cake, grimacing at smeared surface. At least it was still in its box. I sighed, before glancing back at the object. What was it anyways? I slowly walked around, peering at it from a few different angles, before coming closer.

I jumped back as a crack appeared in its dark surface, bright flames ripping out. I backpedaled as more cracks appeared, and the surface shattered open. I gasped as an arm burst out from inside the flames, burning and smoldering with heat. Another joined it, the two pulling out a skeletal, winged figure, composed of pure flame.

I was frozen in shock and fear as it stumbled to its feet, spreading its huge wings before its burning, beaked face turned towards me.

"Ventus." It called, its voice like the cackle of hungry fire.

Oh crap. The old lady didn't seem so crazy suddenly this Firehawk thing was real. Well in that case it was time to take the advice of a very sane person, and ran like hell. I sprinted away, pushing my tired legs as hard as I could. Don't look back, don't look back I chanted in my head.

I heard the sound of flapping wings, and made the mistake of looking back. The fiery fiend had taken to the air, and was right on my tail, gaining fast.

I bobbed and weaved, screaming and ducking as it barreled overhead, desperately running for cover. I just had to get to the party, the crazy lady said I would be safe when I got home. A fireball about the size of a basketball zoomed past my head, singeing my hair and skin before exploding on the pavement, quickly liquefying the cement. I screamed louder, running full sprint back to the house, weaving back and forth across the street, trying to draw off its aim.

I was almost there, I could see the house now! And then my arms burned, my armor cracking as the Firehawk caught me by the shoulders and took to the air. I screeched and shouted, begging for mercy as we flew on, soaring over the island. Finally, it dropped me down just past the city limits, alighting on top of a burnt out street lamp.

"What do you want? I didn't put your mark thing on, it was somebody else!"

The Firehawk stared down, liquid flame bleeding out of it and sizzling as it hit the ground.

"Oh I know" It said "I know all about you. The one who summoned me, the being who gave you the mark, they told me all about you and your crimes."

"Crimes?" I asked, backing up fast. The Firehawk hopped down, landing neatly and stalking forward, nodding its horrible head.

"Did you think you were innocent? You betrayed their best friend, you hurt them, sent them in to a dark place."

Their flames got hotter, and raw anger pushed out into the demons voice.

"You let them get hurt, you knew what he was afraid of, you knew what kind of screwed up things had happened to him, and you just went along with everybody else and hurt him!"

A circle of flames erupted around us, boxing me in. I gulped, the Firehawk catching up now that I had no escape, towering over me.

"You hurt my best friend!" The demon roared.

I stumbled back, mind reeling, face contorted in fear.

"Please, I didn't know!"

The Firehawk roared, flames brightening, the fire burning high before dying down again.

"Well guess what? Ignorance isn't bliss, and you are going to pay. I don't care who you are, if you _**EVER**_ hurt him like you did last night again, I will hunt you down. No one hurts my best friend, no one!"

Last night? Best friend? Wait a second. The demon suddenly charged forward, grabbing me by the neck and lifting me off the ground. I choked and spluttered, crying out in agony as the flames bit into my throat. My armor melted, my clothes burned away, my skin somehow escaping the painful treatment unscathed, albeit red and pained.

Finally the demon threw me down. I coughed and wheeze, trying to get air back into my lungs, before realizing that my clothes were nothing but ashes now, and hastily covering myself up, coughing and spluttering worse than ever. My lungs still stung with smoke, and my throat was raw and cracked. "The Firehawk said something else, issuing a warning I wasn't coherent enough to understand.

And then they raised their arms, the flames that composed their body growing brighter and brighter, their form dissolving into sparks and smoke. And then there was nothing left. I shivered and gagged, completely nude out alone on Halloween night, absolutely terrified.

What had just happened? There words came back to me, two people instantly coming to mind; Roxas and Axel. What had they done? What had I done? I whimpered, glancing down at my bare chest. The Roman numeral VIII was smeared in ash, along with the Firehawk's parting words to me.

"Don't make me do this again. You won't survive round two."

x-X-x

"You burned my brother's clothes off and left him outside of town, naked?'

"He looked terrified." I said, wiping off the last of my Firehawk getup.

I had been bottling all that emotion up for hours now, it wasn't something I was used to. I wasn't just angry at Ventus though, I was angry at all of them, Cloud and Ventus were just tied for second place. I couldn't wait to get at number one though.

I had slacked off on my best friend duties, I never took Sora aside and threatened to end him if he hurt my best friend. Roxas was more than my best friend, he was the closest thing I had to family, and we had been through hell together and come out stronger than ever.

"Works for me, nice job Ax. You better hurry up, the shows starting soon."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." I said, smiling into the phone. I came around to the alley, nudging the old lady with my foot.

"Nice job Larx, let's go, its show time."

The old lady peeled back a few layers of cloth, revealing her black cloak and pulled off her flesh mask, Larxene smiling up at me.

"The shrimp fell for it; that was so easy! I almost cracked up halfway through, the expression on his face was priceless!"

"You should have seen his face when he saw me." I remarked, helping her to her feet, earning giggles from my girlfriend.

"Hey you two, freeze!"

Larxene and I whirled around to see Leon running towards us, gun drawn.

I put the phone back up to my ear saying "We might be a little late Roxy, I've got to lose big brother dearest."

"Wait! Leon's there?"

"Yep, coming in fast."

"Lead him to the others and we'll start this party, just hurry up."

"See you soon Roxy, save a punch or two for me."

I pushed the phone into one of my pockets and Larxene glanced over saying "Come on, we'll cut through and draw back to the gardens so we can lose him."

"Nope, boss man wants Leon and the others to meet up. Follow my lead."

I smiled widely as Leon approached, ignoring the handgun he leveled at my chest.

"I've had enough with all of this, take me to Roxas."

"Huh he figured it out. I think he's the only one." Larxene said.

"He's a cop, messing up others fun is his hobby."

"Shut up. Where's Roxas?"

"Well since you asked so nicely, I'm not going to tell you. But I'll do the next best thing."

My fingers snapped at my side, an explosion of smoke erupting from the air. I snatched Leon's gun out of his hands, tossing it into the trash and grabbed Larxene by the arm, pulling up our hoods and charging down the street.

"Catch us if you can copper!"

x-X-x

"Are you sure this is the place?" Olette asked, glancing around nervously.

"Judging by the words 'The World That Never Was' written in big bloody letters over the door, I'd say that this is the place."

Naminé, Kairi, Aqua, Terra, Olette, Hayner, and Pence stared at the giant hole in the wall, dark steps leading into a pitch black abyss.

"You think this is just another prank?"

"It has to be. But we can't leave Sora to go through it alone, we've got to find him."

"I dunno" Hayner admitted "I for one am opposed to going into the scary castle, which we're almost certain is not just a trap for us, but a set up for Sora too."

Terra glared over at him.

"We're going in there and getting my brother out safely, it's not up for debate."

"Uh guys, they got Ven." Pence said, staring at his phone.

"What? When?"

"I don't know, the timers almost ready for the last name. It doesn't say what happened to him. You add Sora to that list and we've got thirteen victims."

Something rattled down the street, and everyone turned to see Ventus, wearing only a large brown paper bag, covering him just past his waist.

"Ven! What happened to you?"?

Ventus shrugged nervously, glancing around and shivering, fingering his bright red throat.

"Not much. Got attacked by a fire demon and had my life threatened if I hurt their best friend ever again."

"Fire demons have best friends? Wait, I've been hearing that all day, everyone's being accused of being a traitor, they hurt someone, betrayed their trust, or something."

"Oh you haven't figured that out yet? Yeah, once they started talking, it all came together. This is all payback from-"

Ventus stopped talking, squealing in fright as two black cloaked figures came around the other end of the alley, laughing madly and dashing into the darkness of the World That Never Was. Leon came charging down after them, coming to a halt when he saw all of us.

"What are you all doing here?"

"We got a ransom note for Sora, we have to go in there if we ever want to see him again."

Leon growled, looking into the darkness.

"This is taking things too far, he's in big trouble."

"Who is?"

"Roxas." Leon and Ventus said simultaneously.

A blood curdling scream came from deep within the World That Never Was, and everyone froze.

"Was that…?" Leon started to ask, but shook his head, too scared to finish he question.

"Um, guys?" Pence said.

Everyone turned back to him as he held up his phone. Club XIII's list of victims was gone, replaced with a timer and Sora's name. Underneath it in bold letters read;

"You know where I am, you know what I want. You hurt me, so I hurt you, it made perfect sense. Are you angry, or scared, are you too terrified to move, are you in so much pain that you feel like you just might die? Good. Now you know what I went through, what you all put me through. You want him back, you want to end all this? Come and get me. Happy Halloween. Sincerely yours, the king of terror, prince of revenge, and the one who scared the hell out of all you jerkwads, XIII."

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><p><strong>Only one more, hope you enjoyed the ride, get ready for the main event! Trick or treat people, read and review!<strong>


	14. 12 AM-Sora

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. **

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><p><strong>12 A.M. Sora<strong>

"No, Roxas!"

I stared in horror as he fell back, blood dripping down his chest, staining his dark cloak. I looked down in horror at the knife in my hand, not comprehending what I had just done, not wanting to accept why the blade was red and dripping

Roxas stumble, blue eyes tearing up, blood dripping out of the corners of his mouth.

"Sora…" He managed to whisper, his voice broken, rich with the pain of betrayal and the agony of the gaping wound in his chest. He hit the dark stone altar, falling onto his back, lying in a puddle of his own blood.

I dropped the knife and rushed forward, ripping off my jacket and pushing it against he wound.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know, I thought you were one of them!"

Roxas just smiled, weakly lifting a gloved hand to my cheek lovingly, before seizing up and coughing up blood.

"Why did you jump in front of me?" I demanded.

"They were going to hurt you. I didn't think you actually had it in you to hurt them, so I jumped between you so I could save you. Me and my dumb ideas."

Roxas laughed, only to choke on his own blood, and I sobbed, trying to press down on the wound, willing the mark to close, the blood to flow back where it belonged.

"I love you Sora." He whispered, closing his eyes.

"No, you stay away! Keep your eyes open Roxas, don't you dare leave me!"

I could see the hooded figures coming back out of the darkness now, silent and watching, circling slowly around the room.

"It is done." One whispered.

Roxas stilled in my arms.

"No! Roxas, wake up! Don't you die on me! Roxas! Roxas!"

This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't be happening. This was all some mind shatteringly horrible nightmare, it couldn't be real. How had everything gone so wrong, what happened? How did I get here, how did it come to this?

I sobbed as the memories came flooding back in a wave of emotion, drowning me in hysteria while I cradled my dead lover. And then I was back there, right back at the beginning…

(Previously that day, 8 A.M.)

When I woke up, my face was numb from being pressed into the carpet all night long, the marks indented into my cheek. I scratched my head and sat up, stretching out and yawning loudly.

I hadn't slept well, not after what I had done to Roxas. The image of his angry, terrified face was burned into my eyes, and I could still hear his whimpers echoing in my ears. It was only after it was too late that anyone realized that anything was wrong.

After trying in vain to get him to come out and to get in, Cloud had pulled us all aside, he and Ven explaining their grievous mistake.

"How did we forget that? It was basically throwing him right back to that night." Ventus had exclaimed, wringing his hands in guilt.

Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose, clenching his teeth and saying "I didn't think of it either, not until I saw him."

"What's going on? What's wrong with Roxas?" I demanded.

Cloud sighed, before slowly starting to elaborate.

"Did Roxas ever tell you how our parents died?"

I shook my head and he went on.

"Roxas and Ven were six when it happened. We were visiting Radiant Garden, checking out a possible job offer for mom. We were at the subway station, it was late. Ven had to go to the bathroom, and so mom and dad had me take him while they waited with Roxas. While we were gone, a man came in with a gun."

"He threatened everyone, told them to give him all their money. Dad and a few other guys rushed him, and dad got shot. They managed to get the gun away, but the people were freaking out. Mom was trying to take care of dad, and Roxas was crying. The man managed to get lose and grabbed him, rushing off into the subway tunnel with his new hostage."

Everyone had been shocked, eyes wide, mouths agape.

"Mom traded off with another woman, grabbed the man's gun and ran after them. In the end she caught up, and they struggled. Mom managed to shoot him, but he slit her throat. Roxas watched them both die right in front of him. Ven and I came back out to find all the chaos, Dad was going out fast, and mom had gone after Roxas. We go taken down to the station with the cops while they took dad to the hospital and closed down the tunnels. Dad died while they searched, and then they found Roxas hours later, curled up behind a box, covered in blood with the gun next to the bodies and a few dead dogs. They were mongrels, they got trapped in the subway eons ago and when they smelled blood they came running."

Dog eyes shined in the darkness, reflecting whatever light they came across. I had just sent out a bunch of shiny eyed monsters after him in the darkness when he was all alone, making all these strange noises, probably sounding just like a bunch of wild animals coming after him…

"Apparently they started… eating the bodies. Then they got a little bolder and tried to take a chunk out of Roxas. Roxas shot them and hid in the box so no more could find him."

The room was deathly silent now, guilt and sympathy overwhelming us.

"So when he heard those noises and saw our eyes…" Hayner started.

"It triggered those memories, post-traumatic stress you could say" Cloud confirmed "It's been years since he's broken down, I had really forgotten it."

"Roxas…" I whispered, horrified.

I had rushed back to the door after that, staying long after everyone else had left and gone to sleep.

"I'm so sorry Roxas. I didn't' know. I didn't know…"

I stared at the closed door in front of me, my heart aching. Down the hall, Cloud emerged from his room, already dressed and ready for work. He glanced down at me, before looking at Roxas' door.

"I don't know what to do…" I murmured, my voice hoarse.

I should probably give him space, he needed to cool down, to work things out. But I was his security blanket, whenever he broke down I was the one who made him laugh and open up again, I was the one who brought him to life.

Cloud studied me for a long time before turning back, reaching on top of his door frame and pulling down a long, black rod.

"We'll talk to him together." Cloud said simply. He stuck the rod into Roxas' lock and twisted, the door slowly swinging open.

The room was frigid, the window was wide open, but Cloud and I ignored it, staring around the room. It had been ransacked; his dresser had been overturned, his mattress was against the wall, books, clothes, and struggle bats cluttered the floor. Guilt ripped into me anew when I saw the costume Roxas had so painstakingly made, torn apart and lying in pieces around the room, the pumpkin mask cleaved in two.

"Roxas?" Cloud walked over to a lump under the blankets, but it was only a few pillows. I frowned, worry joining guilt. Where was he? Cloud scanned the room, before turning to the window and back to me.

"You would have woken up if he passed by, wouldn't you?"

I nodded, but Cloud had already turned away.

"Damn it Roxas, he must have snuck out."

Roxas wasn't here?

"I'm going to have to tear this town apart to find him. I just hope he's not in one of his freak out modes."

"I'll do it."

Cloud looked back at me, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm the one who ruined everything, I'll find him. You have work anyways, you can't miss it. I'll head out right now, I'll go all day, and I won't stop until I find him."

"I know you won't. Call me if you find him. And Sora?"

"Yeah?"

"Roxas is broken, he's hurt. That's not something that's just going to change overnight. If you want your relationship to work out with him, you've got to be willing to be patient and help him, got it?"

"I'll wait as long as he needs me to. He's my other half, he's got a part of my heart. I'm never going to leave him."

Cloud was quiet for a while before nodding.

"Call me if you find him. I'll walk you out

We parted at the edge of the driveway, and from then on, I was on a path to find the boy I loved. Nothing was going to stop me.

(Previously that day, 1 P.M.)

The search wasn't going well. Sora wasn't hanging around the school, he wasn't anywhere in the woods, he wasn't in our secret spot, he wasn't at the mall, he wasn't in town, he wasn't in any of the neighborhoods. I had ripped the islands apart and there was no sign of him so far.

I finally stopped when I got downtown, drawing up a map. It wasn't like Roxas could have just walked off the face of the earth, we were on an island, and there weren't exactly many places to hide. Unless he wasn't hiding, instead taking more drastic action. I shivered at the thought, pinching myself to get rid of the thoughts.

Roxas was hurt, but he wouldn't harm himself, and he would never kill himself. The thought steeled my nerve, and I pushed, on, redoubling my search as I went through downtown. None of the shopkeepers had seen him, he wasn't hiding out on the roofs of any buildings, he was just gone.

Finally, I ended up collapsing tiredly onto a bench in the park, putting my head in my hands. What was I supposed to do, where should I go? They didn't exactly teach you what to do when you triggered a traumatic memory in your boyfriend and sent him spiraling into a mental breakdown in school. I

I felt alone and confused right now. I hadn't know that story about Roxas and his parents. Sure most people knew that Roxas' parents had died when he was young, but I never pushed the topic, and no one ever brought it up. A part of me was hurt that he hadn't trusted me enough to try and talk to me, but at the same time I didn't blame him. I couldn't imagine going through something like that.

I sighed happily as my mind replayed a happier memory, one of Roxas with me, down at the beach earlier this year. I had been sitting in the sand, and he had been sitting behind me. I remembered how surprised I had been when he suddenly slipped his hands down my shirt, pulling me closer and whispering that he loved me, before challenging me to catch him if I could, ripping off my shirt and racing off, holding his prize high above his head and laughing as I chased along after him on the hot sand.

It was a good memory. I could practically feel his arms around me right now, I could feel his skin caressing mine, his nose nuzzling up against my cheek, I could smell his strange vanilla scent and feel my heart feel whole, a feeling I only had when he was with me.

And then I realized that a pair of arms were wrapped around me, and that the familiar vanilla scent was beside me. I whirled around, face splitting into a wide smile as my eyes met my loves.

"Roxas!" I threw my arms around him, pulling him into a bone crushing hug.

I breathed him in, trying to memorize every piece, before pulling away, holding his hands tightly.

"I'm so sorry about what happened, I didn't know what was going on, and I swear that I'm going to…. Going to…" I trailed off, frowning as my blonde chuckled, before taking a step back.

My eyes widened and I felt myself blush, taking in his appearance. Roxas was wrapped in bandages, or at least parts of him were. It was obvious that he was a mummy now, but it was one hell of a mummy, one with lots of skin showing, and all in the right places. I gulped, blush reddening, staring at my practically naked boyfriend.

"Roxie, you're costume, it's um…"

Roxas flashed a coy grin, eyes shining with an unfamiliar emotion.

"You like it? I thought you would. I fixed it up special just for you since you didn't like the last one."

I frowned, shaking my head and saying "No, I loved the last one, it was amazing!"

Now Roxas frowned, twirling a blonde spike in his hands.

"So, you don't like it?"

"No I like it, it really shows you off. I mean, it really shows off, you did a great job it looks kind of, well, tight."

Roxas gave a sly grin, doing a turn, showing off his sexy frame. Holy frigging teenage hormones, I think I was going to die. He came closer and grabbed me by the front of my shirt, pulling me over and crashing out lips together.

Roxas was crazed, his tongue crashing against mine, hands roaming over my body and tangling in my hair while I tried to keep my balance and remember to breathe, mind shattering with the overwhelming pleasure.

"I'm glad you like it." Roxas whispered, nibbling at my lip, blue eyes boring into my soul as he ground up against me. I think I could have died happy at that point, having the love of my life in my arms after one of our most mind-blowing kisses, my body numb with pleasure.

But that's when everything went all wrong. Roxas was leaning in to whisper something in my ear when I saw something black appear in the corner of my eye. The next thing I knew, we were being tackled to the ground. I let out a grunt, dazed, watching two black cloaked figures grab Roxas by the arms, quickly dragging him away.

"Sora!" He cried desperately, struggling against his captors to no avail.

I charged to my feat, adrenaline pumping through me as I charged after them. I made a leap for them as I got closer, only for a mountain of a man in another black cloak to suddenly come between us, catching me in the air. He held me by the back of the shirt, holding me a good foot above the ground while I flailed and spun around, shouting "Put me down! Don't you dare hurt him, give him back to me!"

"Sora, help!"

I managed to peer around the giant in time to see the figures throwing him in the back of a black van, slamming the doors shut and heading for the front. One gave a whistle, and my attacker heaved me into the air. I flew a good ten feet, crashing down onto the grass with a pained groan. I heard the doors open and slam shut, and forced myself back up, staring in horror as the van started up and started pulling away.

"Roxas!"

I dashed after them, going full sprint to try and keep up with the van. We twisted and turned, going through the neighborhood, the van speeding ahead, my shortcuts and direct roots doing little as I started losing ground fast.

Thanks to the area I managed to keep the van in sight for a long time, before we got to a tunnel leading to the other side of the island. The van zoomed in, vanishing from sight, going faster than I could ever hope to go on foot. I panted, forcing myself to keep going, determined to save him.

My boyfriend had just been kidnapped! I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket, speed dialing Leon. The police could help, I'd have Roxas back in no time. The call never went through, reception was dead in the tunnel. I growled, pushing myself harder and called Vanitas, knowing he had a motorcycle and nothing but time today.

It rang three times before I got sent to voicemail. The jerk had probably hit ignore. Did he realize that the love of my life had just been thrown in the back of a van and was being taken who knows where to have who knows what happen to him?!

I tried Leon again, but there wasn't an answer, so I tried Kairi. She answered after only a few rings, voice full of emotion.

"Oh, thank goodness, Sora I need you right now, Naminé and I were just-"

"I need your help!" I interrupted.

I panicked as the phone suddenly filled with white noise, cutting in and out before finally clearing up.

"Sora? What's up?"

"It's Roxas he's in big trouble! I found him in the park, well he found me, but that's not important. We were talking and kissing, and then these people in black came and they kidnapped him. I chased them to the tunnel, but now I've lost them. I'm freaking out I don't know what to do, I can't reach anybody else. And then I think about how much Roxas is probably freaking out right now and everything gets worse, I need to know what should I do, do I keep going or try and get Leon or one of the adults?"

No response. I glanced at my phone as I kept going, seeing no bars. The conversation was done, I didn't have reception. I came to a stop, swearing loudly, tears in my eyes. What was I supposed to do? Roxas was in trouble, I had to save him!

A car suddenly came up from behind, slowing down beside me, one of my neighbors, Luxord, rolling down his window.

"Good morning Sora. What are you doing all the way down here? A nice morning jaunt around the island?"

I shook my head trying to catch my breath.

"No! Roxas, my boyfriend, they took him, I have to get him back!"

"Oh, is this one of those delightful games you young chaps are playing nowadays? How droll, it sounds quite amusing, albeit a tad exhausting from the look of things. Might I lend you a ride?"

"Yes!" I said, eagerly hopping into the car.

"Wonderful, we'll have you and your Roxas reunited in no time at all. To the ends of the earth shall we ride, through snow, through rain, through toil and trouble, until our quest is complete and we stand victorious at the home of the gods! To adventure!"

(Previously that day, 8 P.M.)

I was getting desperate. Luxord had driven me all around the other side of the island, we had spent hours searching the same places over and over again, before Luxord dropped me off so he could do the errand he had come here for in the first place.

I was waiting for him now, leaning up against a building and staring up at the dark sky. I wanted to be home, I wanted to be with my friends and with my Roxas, having a kick butt Halloween and fixing all the mistakes I had made. But I didn't have Roxas. I couldn't reach anyone now, my phone had died eons ago. I had tried calling Leon, and even the police after we got out of the tunnel, but both calls went dead every time I tried them.

What was I supposed to do? Luxord's car came humming around the street up ahead, and I pushed off the wall, walking to the corner and waiting. He was almost to me, when his headlight illuminated the front of a building that had been previously drowned in shadows. My heart skipped a beat as I saw a black cloaked figure leaning up against the shop window, watching me.

Time seemed to stop as we watched each other. And then we were running. Luxord slammed on his brakes as I streaked out in front of him, rolling down his window to complain, but I was already gone, sprinting after the figure. They ripped along the corner, me right behind.

The figure doubled back behind a building, and I chased after, before running off behind an oversized dumpster, their footsteps suddenly falling silent. I screeched to a halt as I came to the other side, raising my fists for a fight, willing to take on the world to get back what I wanted. There was nothing there but empty stone wall. I looked around, checking inside the dumpster, underneath it, even checking for ladders and manholes where they could have escaped to. It was like they had just been swallowed up by the night, as though they had never existed in the first place.

An old motion sensor behind me finally noticed me, and the wall in front of me was illuminated. I took a step back, eyes widening as I saw an enormous grey cross like symbol dominating the wall; it was just like Roxie's necklace! In the center of the symbol was a playing card, the symbol dominating its surface as well. I reached up and snatched it off the wall, turning it over.

"_Time is running out. At the fall of the thirteenth, balance will finally be restored. Go back to start. X_." I frowned down at the message, trying to think.

Time running out? Fall of the thirteen, balance? What was it talking about? I knew this was part of Roxas' symbol, it had to be talking about him. Go back to start? Did that mean I had to go back to his house? Were they waiting for me there?

I rushed back to the street, nearly running into Luxord.

"I say, are you mad? Running in front of automobiles like that, you likely to get yourself killed!"

"I have to get back to Roxas'!" I said simply, pulling him along and rushing into the car.

"Back to the grindstone aye? Alright, I'll go."

We sped back through town, zipping out the tunnel and coming back to our side of the island. Luxord pulled into the neighborhood, slowly driving towards Roxas' home. He was going on about his on Halloween plans when he was my age, and driving the exact speed limit while I hopped up and down, biting my lip and quivering.

When Luxord finally pulled up to the curb, I didn't even wait for him to come to a stop, I bolted out the door and raced up to the house.

"Roxas!" I called, slamming open the door and turning on the lights. There wasn't a reply. I rushed up to his room- all suddenly pristine and polished clean- glancing around before going back, checking every room in the house. I had been so stupid, he was probably still on the other side of the island somewhere, lost and alone.

Why was it so cold in here? I swear I could see my breath misting in front of my eyes, wasn't it cold enough outside? I walked over to fix the thermostat, passing a lone picture in the hallway. I walked straight past it, only to stop, quickly backpedaling and staring at it. The picture was obscured, a thin layer of frost had set up shop over the glass.

In it were written the words "_All will play their part tonight, this game is far from over, and soon the ritual may begin. You want him, bring yourself, we are all too happy to bargain. The abandoned lot. IV_."

I raced out the door, hoping to bum another ride from Luxord, but he was long gone. I sighed and started running, thanking Cloud for putting me in so many athletic programs to keep up my endurance. It took a while, but I finally got to the lot, the usually empty space now holding a strange building, a sign above the door saying "Club XIII House of Mirrors!" I did a quick run around, checking the walls for any message or symbol, before noticing the wide open doors.

Time to be crazy again. I cautiously walked in, running into a wall almost the instant I did. I hated these kinds of mazes. Green light erupted from the ground, illuminating the room, and I growled, a black cloaked figure clearly shown in all the mirrors.

"Who are you?" I shouted at them, angrily groping at the glass.

"A nobody" They replied simply, safe wherever their hiding spot was. I struggled along, finding ever single dead end possible and having to backtrack and try again, getting angrier and angrier.

"My, you are slow. How do you hope to conquer our challenges if you can't even find me? Such a shame."

"I don't care about your stupid challenges, just give me back Roxas!"

"Are you sure you want him? It didn't look that way after last night."

How had they known about last night?

"Let me out of here! Give him back to me!"

The figure just shook their head, chuckling.

"Like an angry child, how impressive. You want your precious toy back? Very well."

The lights flickered off, and suddenly the figure was gone. A spike of anger went through me, and I raised my hand to strike the glass, before realizing that they had left another message.

"_This is not your night, you will pay your price, the ties that bind will come undone. Holding out hope that not all is lost, a foolish notion. We await for you now, all thirteen of the dead, follow me if you hope to get ahead. VI_."

A mirror behind me suddenly shattered, and I whirled around to see a black figure racing away through the hole. I jumped in after them, finding myself back on the outside. I looked around wildly, before finally spotting the figure making a quick escape between two buildings.

I followed after them for a long time, we ran in circles, over buildings, under bridges, through the woods, past a crazy loud party club downtown, and finally down an alley. The figure charged ahead, before suddenly veering left, slamming their hand against the wall. The alleyway lights flickered off and there was an earth shattering rumble. A few seconds later, the lights flickered back on.

I stared up in shock at the giant hole that had just popped into existence, a set of black stairs leading up into the shadows. Even as I watched, red liquid suddenly started oozing out of the wall overhead, the words 'The World That Never Was' writing itself out in blood.

I stared at it for a long time, staring up into the dark abyss. They said they were taking me to Roxas, so he had to be in there. Which meant I was going in there. I took a deep breath, giving my muscles a quick break, before marching in. I had only made it three steps before the hole suddenly closed up behind me, plunging the stairway into darkness. I stumbled along, going from stair to stair, trying to find my way around.

Strange blue lights suddenly appeared, flitting and flying around the room around me, long lines of pulsing light circling the air. I frowned, trying to use them as a way to guide me but the light was too faint.

One came extremely close, going behind my neck, and I freaked out when something smooth scraped along my skin, batting at the empty air. What the heck were these things? And then a single, grey flame erupted high above me, illuminating my portion of the hallway.

Strange, alien creatures were circling, their silver bodies flexing and contorting at impossible angles, their mouths zippered shut. I scooted way from them as fast as possible, but the just started coming my way. One jumped at me, and I raised my hand in defense. Light flashed, and I opened my eyes to see my personalized struggle bat, The Keyblade as I called it, in my hand.

I had no clue how it suddenly got into my hand, or why it suddenly looked and felt so real, all that mattered was I suddenly wasn't defenseless anymore. I ducked to the side, slamming the creature out of the air with a well-timed hit, before spinning, knocking two more out of the air and sprinting into the darkness. I didn't have time to worry about whatever they were, I had to find Roxas.

My eyes finally managed to adapt to the little light, and I saw two large double doors. I pulled them open, gaping at the sight in front of me. A castle hung in the air above me, dominating the dark, desolate metropolis below it. Where was I? What had happened to Destiney Islands? I walked forward, staring up at the strange castle. There was the symbol again, Roxas' symbol, imprinted everywhere on the structure, strange spires, towers, and keeps attached to it.

I took a few steps forward. I took a few steps forward, coming to the edge of my path. Below, it spiraled down, going for miles until it got to the city. How was any of this possible? The door slammed shut behind me, and I whirled around to see another dark cloaked figure.

"Who are you?" I demanded, raising the Keyblade threateningly.

"I am I." They responded simply.

"Where am I? What did you do to Roxas?"

"You are in the World That Never Was, the place of all true death and nothingness. As for your friend, he is being prepared for the ritual as we speak."

"Ritual? What ritual? What's going on?"

"So many questions. Someone who understands so little cannot hope to understand so much. You will not win tonight."

"I will! I'll do anything to get Roxas back, and nobody's going to stand in my way."

I simply lifted their arms to the sky.

"So be it. Go on, your desire awaits."

And then they vanished before my eyes, swallowed up by the darkness. A tinkling sound came from behind me, and I glanced back, gasping as a bridge made of pure light suddenly appeared, leading straight up to the castle in the sky. No way.

"Sora!"

Roxas?!

"I'm coming Roxas!"

I called, throwing caution to the wind and sprinting up the bridge, and into the castle. It was huge on the inside, pieces of walls floating around, the entire thing was discombobulated, nothing seemed to have a fixed state. I tried to make my way around, seeing the stairs that would lead me to my freedom.

Another figure in black suddenly appeared, leaning up against them, arms crossed.

"So, the kiddo thinks he can take us on huh? The name's II, hope you remember it when you're long gone. Alright tiger, let's see what you got."

II snapped his fingers, and another bridge, this one made of pipes, appeared, spanning the distance between our platforms. I glanced down, seeing the city far, far below.

"About three or four of the pipes are safe, the rest send you plummeting to your doom. Go wild kiddo."

I just had to make it across. I just had to make it across. I just had to… I took a deep breath, steeling my resolve, before sprinting at top speeds across. I could feel the pipe I chose giving out on me the second I touched it, bouncing off its surface even as it started falling and going to the next.

I kept bounce-sprinting, before making a mad leap for the end. The figure snapped their finger before I managed to land, and the pipes vanished. I let out a startled cry, grabbing onto the ledge with my upper half while my lower half dangled dangerously over, cold wind trying to pull me down. I tossed my Keyblade ahead and pulled myself up, snatching the blade up again and turning to the figure, but they were gone.

I growled, running up the stairs. They spiraled far above me, seemingly going on forever and ever. I was panting for breath when the wind suddenly started up, hurricane like gales literally lifting me off the ground and into the air. I screamed for a second, before spotting another of the cloaked figures riding the breeze above me.

"Stop it! Just give me back Roxas!"

I heard them chuckle of the sound of air rushing by, and they waved their hands, the wind simply getting stronger blowing us along. No, I had better things to do, it didn't matter if all this was insane and people had freaky super powers. I hurled the Keyblade at their head, using my speed to bounce off a wall and tackle them out of the air. We came crashing to the ground, the figure only laughing as I put the Keyblade to their throat.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"III never betrays his friends. He never hurts them, unlike you."

Guilt took that second of weakness to kick into me again. So did III. Noticing my hesitation, they suddenly reared up underneath me, blasting me with a barrage of air. I flew through the air, heading straight for a wall. I huddled up in time to go crashing through it, smashing out into an empty stone room, full of benches and fire, stalactites and stalagmites everywhere.

"Let the guilty step forward." A voice boomed.

I whirled around, letting out an outraged cry when I saw a boulder of a man sitting in a throne at the front of the room.

"You! This is all your fault, I could have gotten to him in time if it wasn't for you!" I shouted, angrily advancing.

Yeah, I was taking on a man easily three times my size, but I was running on adrenaline and rage, at this rate I could have taken on an army.

"The fault lies with none other than yourself. You have been charged with betrayal, treason, and causing great harm, both physically and mentally to our client. I, your judge V, will let you plead in your own defense. Are you innocent, or guilty?"

I was quiet for a long time, the sound of flames all there was for a long time. Finally, I looked up, a tear in my eye.

"I'm guilty. I hurt Roxas, I really screwed up. But I deserve a second chance, I didn't know, I was just trying to have fun."

"The excuse of all criminals."

"It's true! And Roxas will forgive me, I know he will. Where is he?"

"That is of no importance. You have plead guilty, and the punishment is death."

The giant charged up from their throne, swinging an equally giant gavel down at my head. I rolled to the right, the ground shattering at the gavels impact, swinging at the figures knee and spinning around for a back hit. The Keyblade clashed against the gavel, the two of us somehow struggling to overpower the other. Finally, the figure suddenly let the gavel fall, sending a powerful kick to my stomach, and I flew back, crashing into the throne.

"You dare defy my judgment? And for the sake of a boy who may not forgive you? For someone you so willingly hurt?"

I managed to sit up, scooping up the Keyblade before falling back into the throne, raising it defiantly up at him.

"I'll defy anyone who stands in my way, I'm not going to let him go. I made this mess, I've got to clean it up."

The behemoth man chuckled.

"Well played little one. Very well, press on. But believe me, the worst fate imaginable awaits for you with XIII."

The slammed their gavel down onto the ground, and I let out a surprised cry as the chair of the throne suddenly gave out, sending me plummeting. I fell hard, groaning and moaning in pain, letting myself stay down. Four psychos so far, seven if you wanted to count the ones whose messages and figures had led me here. Seven crazy people, one horrifying quest to save Roxas and fix my mess.

What had that last guy V said, XIII's fate would be more horrifying or something? Welt hat was just fantastic. I heard a nearby howl and looked up, checking out the room. The whole wall to my left was nothing but glass, a small bridge leading to a door on the other side of the room. This looked easy enough, no I just had to worry about whatever had made the noise.

I leaned down and picked up my Keyblade, staring to walk towards the door. I was still going when a pure blue wolf literally jumped out of a hole in space, charging at me. I just kept walking, dodging to the left at the last possible second and slashing at its side.

The creature yelped, falling to the ground, writhing as its fur turned black and melted together to form a black cloak.

"You will never reach him, you know. And even if you do, you will not like what you see." Its inhabitant said, standing tall.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I really don't even care at this rate. The last guy was V, and VI brought me here in the first place, so I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're VII?"

The figure stayed quiet, face hidden from sight.

"Well VII, here's your options. You either let me go and tell me how to get to Roxas or I take you down, and then go find him on my own."

They snorted, extending a gloved hand. I jumped back, bravado dying as blue flames leapt from their palms, forming a claymore. And with that, I was fighting for my life for the fourth time that night.

"What is with you people?" I asked, parrying a knock to the head and stabbing at his chest, countering when he went on defense.

I got no answer, only a blow to the back of my head. I finally was able to knock the claymore out of their hands, kicking it away, breathing hard.

"Give it up already. I just want my friend back."

"You should have fallen long ago. I would kill you now, but XIII already marked you as their own. That doesn't mean I can't have a little fun though."

"Fun? I just beat you, what could you possibly have up you sleeve that makes you think you can change that?"

Thinking back, that was a really, really stupid thing to say. The figure whirled around to the windows, throwing back their hood and raising their arms. I had a moment to take in his strange face, seeing the X scars over his nose before blue flames consumed him. I stared, horrified as he started growing. His cloak tore and bulged, blue hair took over every inch of skin, and vicious claws ripped from of his gloved fingers. I started back up, heart beating fast. VII turned back around, revealing a vicious looking snout full of razor sharp fans. Werewolf. Not good.

I tried swinging at it as it rushed me, only to get backhanded, the beast roaring madly. Alright, new plan. I rolled to my feet and charged for the door, grabbing the handles and tugging. Locked. The werewolf was charging at full speed, there was nowhere to escape to.

Come on Sora, think! The doors are locked, there's a super strong werewolf (yes apparently they do exist) coming at you, and no chance of escape. What would Roxas do? That was easy, Roxas was all about offence. But he was a smart fighter too, he knew how to take his enemies strength and turn it against them.

I smiled as a plan sprang together, turning and running up the door as the werewolf closed in. I launched off the door, springing over the beast head as it barreled under me, a victim of its own momentum. It crashed into the door, smashing them off their hinges, and kept going, head butting the wall. It stumbled back, spinning and teetering dangerously before finally toppling down, unconscious.

"Thanks for the help" I grinned down at the snoring beastie as I walked down the hall "Don't get up, I'll just let myself out."

The corridor opened up as I went further, and I frowned, the smell of smoke, ash, and sulfur strong in the air. This time there was no grand entrance, nor charging out of nowhere. All the notice I got that I was no longer alone was a painful jab in the back.

I fell to my knees, managing to roll away and to my feet just as a flaming chakram embedded itself where my head had been.

"You don't waste any time do you?" I asked, brandishing my blade.

Another chakram whizzed by my head, a flaming buzz saw of death. My battle with VIII was different than any of the others, there was real rage in his attacks as he obliterated my defenses, a flurry of dancing flames and sharp steel.

When we finally broke away, I was bleeding from multiple wounds and breathing hard. I patted out the flames on my jacket, glaring at the figure.

"Why should I let you pass?" They asked, part of me recognizing their town "You hurt him. But at the same time it was his own fault. Are you really doing all this work for someone who keeps secrets like the fact that they watched their parents and killer die in front of their face? DO you really want to be with someone like that? Think about what else he could be keeping secret. Why should I let you keep going, when for all I know we'll be doing this all again next year? Give me a reason, and make it a good one, or you're out of here."

"You're right. Roxas does have secrets, and it takes a lot of trust to get him to talk to you. He has his walls, but that's alright. I'm not going anywhere, I'll stay with him for as long as it takes, and it doesn't matter if he keeps secrets, because it's his life. If he wants, I'm going to help him, but I won't force him to talk to me, I won't try and hurt him."

"And what if one of those secrets is that he doesn't love you? What if he's just too scared to say it to you, too scared to hurt you?

"If that's what you think then you don't know Roxas at all. Now are we going to keep fighting _Axel_, or can I go find my boyfriend now?"

I glared at Roxas' best friend for a long time while I waited for his answer. The fire, the smoke, and the voice had all pointed to one person, it wasn't hard to figure out who it was. I wasn't as much of an idiot as everyone seemed to think I was.

"Don't ever hurt him again. He's not just my best friend."

I nodded, still angry.

"I never wanted to hurt him to start with. You have to know that."

Axel nodded his hooded head, and turned, walking away.

"What's going on Axel? Where's Roxas?"

Axel didn't look back, instead, flipping me off and calling back "I really wouldn't take advice from me right now, you'd probably end up getting locked in a furnace or thrown in a volcano."

And then he dissolved in an explosion of flames. I stared after him for a while, before taking a deep breath and walking down the opposite hall. I was ready for anything as I came to the next door, kicking it open. Number IX on the other hand, wasn't.

"Wait, you're already here? Oh man, I'm not ready! Just, uh, hold on a second!" I stared in confusion, watching IX run around the room, trying to pour handfuls of powder into various pools of water around the room.

"Any second now, just one more second!"

They threw one last handful in and stood back, raising their hands triumphantly.

"Alright, here we go!" They let out a maniacal laugh, pulling a sitar out from one of the pools and playing a few high pitched notes yelling "Dance water, dance!"

Nothing happened.

"Oh come one!" They whined.

They set the sitar down, grabbing the packet that had held the powder.

"It was working perfectly earlier, I had a whole zombie army thing going on!"

They studied the bag, and read "Ha-ha, if you're reading this then you're a total idiot, hope your prank goes well, love XII. What the…?"

They poked a gloved finger in the power and brought it back to their lips.

"Sugar? Dang it Larx, oh man, the whole thing is ruined!"

"You guys are cooks." I muttered. Louder I said, "I'm just gonna keep on going. Good luck with the whole 'dance water, dance' thing though."

I walked past them as they kept whining, muttering that he told them they picked the wrong guy for this.

"Weirdo." I murmured, going through the next door.

This room was overrun with plant life. What had once looked to be a neat, emasculate cube of a space like the other rooms was cracked and broken. Trees burst from the walls, flowers bloomed in strange colors, life flourishing form the cracks in the ground. It was like a jungle in here. I hacked my way through with the Keyblade, eyes locked on the door at the far end of the room.

"I must say, you're making progress, I have to give you that."

I glanced around, seeing a figure I could only assume was XI, cradling a handful of roses a few meters away. I ignored him and kept moving.

"Why don't you stay a while? Go ahead, stop and smell the roses, you'll be thankful you did."

I kept walking. Vines suddenly shot out form the bushes, tangling my legs.

"I really do _insist. _We could have such fun!"

"I don't have time for this." I snapped, slashing the vines apart and dashing away, crashing through the foliage.

"Stop him!" XI called.

Trees groaned, pulling themselves up by the roots and charging at me. Flower bushes shook, more vines exploding out as I ran, Keyblade flying, rushing to the other door.

Thirteen black pumpkins with Roman numerals going from I-XIII popped up from the tall grass, jumping at me, swinging butcher knives. I swatted them out of the air, smashing one underfoot, and throwing open the door. I whirled around, slamming it shut, flinching as the plant life started crashing against it. I jammed the door with my Keyblade, forcing it close, and took a step back, surveying my work.

The doorway bulged, booms coming from the other side as things collided with the other side, but the Keyblade held firm, and the doors stayed closed.

"Sora…" A sing-song voice called, their voice echoing eerily in the new room.

I groaned and turned around. I only at to make it to XIII, then everything would be over. I just had to survive XII, make it to the final member, and I'd be golden. I could see the door faraway, across the surprisingly open room. I didn't have a weapon anymore, my best bet was going to be to just run like feck for the door.

"Sora's such an idiot." Kairi's voice said behind me.

I whirled around, but there was nothing there.

"So clueless, so stupid." Riku's voice added from beside me.

"Can we just skip to the chase?" I muttered.

I turned back around, only to yelp and jump back, face to face with another masked figure. XII giggled ecstatically.

"Well if that's what you want!"

Electrical sparks ran down her fingers, long slender kunai slipping out between her knuckles. They snapped forward and I barley just managed to duck around her lighting fast jab, only for her to trip and kick me in the side a split second later. I rolled to my feet, ducking as an electrified kunai flew past my head sinking into the wall.

"You're crazy!" I shouted, dodge rolled as she launched another volley, rushing after me. I dashed to the door, constantly losing and gaining ground, getting brand new wounds at every encounter. I spotted a large knife lying beside the door and dived for it, snatching it up and spinning around. XII was gone, only a hollow echo of her sadistic giggling remaining.

I stayed at attention for a while, before slowly relaxing. I guess I just had to get over to the door this time. I leaned back against the wall, grateful for the break. I had been running for hours, the last time I had checked the clock it had already been eleven at night.

I still had no idea what was going on or why Axel was involved I was too tired to think I had to keep going. If I stopped for too long, I would be getting back up, I was so tired. Adrenaline could only keep me going for so long.

I took a few more breaths, wiping my winds clean, and then threw open the final door. I emerged out in a long, empty corridor, a small, feeble light glowing far ahead. I marched for a long time, knife at the ready. The only sound to be heard was my own breathing and my footsteps as I kept walking.

I finally reached the end of the hall, finding a large, circular room made up of pure white stone, thirteen high thrones lining the walls, and a raised platform, Roxie's stylized cross dominating its surface. There was almost no light in here, but what little there was, was greatly enhanced by the stark white of the room, sending out a sort of dark light.

As I walked to the center of the room, I realized that all thirteen thrones were filled, their black cloaked residents in various states of relaxation as they watched me. I stopped before the platform, glaring around the room.

"I'm here" I said simply "I made it through your challenges. Now where's XIII? The sooner we end this, the sooner I get Roxas and we're safe again."

"Ah, but Roxas is already safe." X said.

"Nobody hurts him here, they just let him go with the flow." IX added.

"His own actions suggest that he has no intention of leaving to begin with." IV stated.

"You kidnapped him, of course he wants to go! And being with me and taking a risk that he might get hurt is better off than being with all of you!"

"Whatever." Axel/VIII muttered.

"He's not our responsibility, he's growing up." III countered.

V nodded his enormous head. "The boy is old enough to make his own decisions."

XII just shrugged. "He's our shrimp, he's family. I say we just end this, fun as it is I'm tired, I want to go home."

"Same here! I say we just send him away, and everything's fixed."

"No, the boy should have another chance, it was a simple mistake. Balance is already being restored."

"But our game is far from being over!"

"You, attention please!" II called out.

All except for one hooded figure turned to look at him. The lone exception stared down at me, and I up at him, watching and waiting. I didn't recognize them from any of the challenges or notes. It must be XIII.

"Someone's going to die tonight, and I really don't care who."

Hold the phone, somebody was going to die?! What were they talking about?

"The kid got himself into this mess, it's not up to us. Roxy's all grown up now, let him chose what he wants."

The others murmured in agreement, and finally I raised a hand.

"Very well" They said "We shall let him decide for himself. What is your choice XIII? Freedom, or this boy?"

My eyes snapped back to XIII as he reached up and pulled off his hood. Roxas stared down at me, eyes distant and guarded.

"Roxas?" I asked, the other members hushing me as they waited.

"I heard you tonight. I heard what you said, I saw what you went through, and I know what you did to get here. He was right you know. Axel I mean. I've got secrets, I'm damaged goods Sora. I went crazy because of a painful flashback, I organized all this, this crazy revenge scheme for everyone. Maybe we should end this."

Dread filled my stomach, making me tremble.

"Is that what you want?" I managed to ask.

"No. I never want there to be an end to us. But you deserve more, you deserve better."

"I have the best. I'm here Roxas. You organized all this? You went crazy? Well guess what? I'm still here. I've seen this part of yourself that you don't like, I know why you say you're damaged goods, but I don't care. You wouldn't be Roxas if you didn't have your secrets, you wouldn't be you if you weren't teetering between crazy and insane. I'm still here Roxas, you can't scare me away. I love you Roxie."

The room was silent for what seemed like an eternity, before Roxas' mask broke, his eyes lighting up, a genuine, warm smile playing on his lips.

"I love you too Sora."

Axel groaned.

"Seriously Roxas? After all that, you're just going to let him come crawling back? This is pathetic."

Roxas frowned, glancing over at his best friend.

"I just needed some time to think Axel, what did you expect was going to happen?"

"The plan was to kill him!"

Roxas looked shocked and disgusted.

"I was angry, of course that was the plan, you didn't think I was serious did you?"

"I didn't do all this work so I wouldn't get my pound of flesh." III growled.

The other members started angrily protesting, demanding their recompense.

"Whoa guys, calm down. All we need is for Vexen to pull his hoodoo voodoo hypo-crap on Roxas and then we can have some fun with the kid. Afterwards we just wipe Roxy's head clear and we're all good."

"What?!" Roxas and I shouted.

The other thirteen cheered in agreement, leaping down from their thrones, summoning up fantastical weapons.

"No! Leave him alone!" Roxas cried, leaping down from his own throne, only to be intercepted by IV, IX, and X.

I danced and dodged away, getting kicked, scratched, bruised, and beaten as the others attacked, overwhelming any attempt at defense. This was insanity, why were they doing this? What had Roxas gotten us into? No, what had we gotten ourselves into? I received a painful slash on my arm, getting a view of Roxas through the crowd in the process, trying to fight his way over to me.

I had to fight, I had to get to him. I would do anything to save him at this rate. So when one of the black cloaked members suddenly appeared in front of me, I lunged forward, plunging the knife into their chest with all my might. Out of my peripheral vision, I watched as all the other members suddenly vanished, leaving only me and my victim. I had glanced up at their face, the primal, twisted side of me relishing the action and wishing to see their pained faced.

My heart had shattered and my brain shut down when I found myself looking into Roxas' eyes. No. No, no, no! Panic and hysteria came crashing in, taking my breath way, terror shutting everything else down.

"No, Roxas!"…

(Present, 12:13 A.M.)

"Damn it Larxene, I hate it when you're right!"

"That's your own fault for being stupid Ax, I told you he could do it. Start paying up."

I glared up at them, tears streaming down my face.

"He's dead! Why did you do this? You guys killed him!"

"Um, actually we didn't." Demyx said, pulling back his hood.

Xigbar nodded, pulling back his own hood. "This one's all on you tiger, it wasn't like we're the ones who stabbed him."

"I'm going to kill you!" I roared, snatching the knife back up.

Roxas, what did I do? No! This was their fault! They'd pay, they'd all pay!

Axel stepped forward, a playful smirk on his face.

"Sure, like how you killed Roxas. You really are screwed up, you know that? You went through all that to try and fix things after you hurt him, and then you ended up killing him. How does that feel?"

I screamed, rushing forward and plunging the knife in his belly. I stayed there, panting hard and heaving angry breaths, before realizing that no blood was gushing out, and most disturbing of all, Axel was laughing. They all were. Confused, I pulled the knife out. Something was wrong here.

Movement on the blade itself caught my attention and I studied the blood stained surface before pressing down on the tip with my index finger. The plastic blade sunk back into the handle as I applied more pressure, springing back out when I let go. A stage prop.

Warm arms suddenly snaked around my waist, breath tickling my ear, and a voice whispering "You should have seen your face."

I gasped, jumping back and staring wide eyed at a very much alive, smug looking Roxas.

"Do I scare you now Sora?" He asked, winking.

No way. A flood of emotions washed over me. Relief turned to rage, then to acceptance, happiness, irritation again, before finally settling. I broke down, sides aching as I started laughing uncontrollably. Roxas just smiled and laughed along, the two of us probably looking like idiots.

"You little jerk!" I cried, throwing my arms around him, beaming uncontrollably.

Roxas just winked, whispering "We'll talk later."

He turned back to the room, smiling and laughing saying "I would love to thank my wonderful new coworkers at Club XIII for all their help, without them I never could have hoped to pull of half of this stuff."

"No kidding!" Axel called, out, Larxene elbowing him in the ribs, while the rest of the room clapped along.

"I would also like to thank my not so willing victims, give a round of applause for all of them!" Roxas snapped his fingers, and pieces of the wall suddenly shattered, revealing the rest of our gang, staring at us in shock.

"You've all been a wonderful crowd, we had a great time, and you made it all worth it. Now, before anything else happens, I just want to say one more thing, one last little piece of advice to all of you, my friends, family" he turned back to me "And the love of my life. _**NEVER **_mess with crazy, because crazy will always win. You all started this, I ended it. Remember that."

The other members moved in, laughing and cheering, while our gang stayed still, almost frozen. Roxas walked back to me, entwining our hands together. I noticed everyone wearing similar shirts, all talking about being guilty, all having the Roman numerals of whoever must have pranked them. I glanced down, unsurprised to find that somehow I too had somehow fit into one.

It was different than all of theirs, pure black, covered in checkers, thorns, and crows, a large, silver heart outline in the middle. Inside the heart was the Roman Numeral XIII, and the words "Guilty of stealing my heart."

"Of course that's not entirely true." Roxas said, noticing my focus.

"What do you mean?

"Duh, you can't steal something that's always belonged to you from the start." Roxas said, wrapping his arms around my neck.

"I'm going to get you back, you know that right?" I whispered, smiling and leaning in.

"I'm counting on in it." Roxas said.

"Happy Halloween." We both murmured, sealing the deal with a kiss.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright everybody, stick around for the epilogue, it wraps everything up. Please read, review, and check out my other works. I hope you all enjoyed, have a Happy Halloween!<strong>


	15. The Thirteenth Hour

**Disclaimer; I do not own Kingdom Hearts**

* * *

><p><strong>The Thirteenth Hour<strong>

It was 3 A.M. and Club XIII was still going strong. Publicity stunts, great music, fantastic food, amazing performances, and the timely arrival of the now local celebrity XIII, had the crowd hooked and wanting more. The staff was actually struggling to keep up, not even Xemnas had predicted this kind of a turnout.

After exiting the World That Never Was, everyone had migrated back to the club, throwing away anger and fear in favor of fun and mischief. Ventus for one, couldn't stop laughing, much to his irritated boyfriends chagrin.

"You thought they cut them off? And you never actually checked or felt around down there to be sure?

Ven broke down laughing, and Vanitas glared, crossing his arms across his still bare chest. Ventus finally managed to sober up and tugged Vani's arms loose, wrapping them around his neck and smiling gently.

"Sorry you got freaked out babe."

Vanitas rolled his eyes.

"And for the record, I wouldn't dump you just because you lost your… equipment. Amazing as it is, I'm in a relationship with you because I love you, not just for the sex. Got it?"

Vanitas just grumbled a little, but you could see some sort of emotion light up his eyes, genuine relief and love playing inside them. Ven's smile turned mischievous, his hands trailing south down Vanitas' chest.

"If you really want to feel better, maybe we should run a few tests, just to make sure you're okay. For the sake of your health of course."

Ven finished the offer with a squeeze, earning a pleased moan from Vanitas.

"Lots of tests?"

"As many as you can dish out?" Ven promised with a wink, bringing his lips up to his lovers.

"Oi!"

The two jumped, whirling around to see Cloud coming towards them.

"So much for that idea." Vanitas muttered, glaring at the big brother.

Cloud stopped in front of them, eyes iced over.

"What?" Ven demanded angrily.

Cloud just stayed quiet.

"Yeah, I was making out with my boyfriend, do you have a problem with that? You barley let me even hug or hold hands with him anymore! And after today when we both got freaked out beyond belief, I know that I need some comforting, so if you have a problem, you can just shove it up your-"

"You have tonight."

Ventus stopped short, staring in confusion up at his brother.

"What?"

"You two have tonight, do whatever you want. You're right, the two of you went through a lot."

Vanitas and Ven's jaws dropped.

"You're serious right? This isn't another prank?"

"You're growing up Ven, you earned a little elbow room. After tonight tough, I expect him to start coming to dinner and picking you up for dates, and no more sex. At least for a while. I'm trusting you two, don't make me regret it."

Ven threw his arms around Cloud, beaming from ear to ear.

"Thank you" He whispered "I love you."

"Love you too kid. Now get going, I'm still trying to convince Leon not to scalp your twin."

Ventus eagerly nodded, grabbing Vanitas' hand and pulling him into the crowd. Just before they vanished, Vanitas glanced back, still looking cautious and angry. He gave him a small salute, followed by a cocky smirk, and then the two were gone.

Cloud just shook his head, smiling, meandering back to a still very irked brunette, who was still working on the best arrest warrant to hit Club XIII and my brother with. It was going to be a long morning.

x-X-x

Kairi was another one of the unhappy campers at the club. She kept glaring around, hoping to find the blonde deviant and rip him apart, the same way she was ripping her wig apart right now.

"You look tense." A voice said from behind her.

She spun around angrily, taking in the ex-prankster, Zexion.

"Oh I don't know why, it's not like I was traumatized or anything." She snapped.

Zexion raised an eyebrow and stepped back, raising his hands in defeat.

"I apologize for stating the obvious, I'll go now."

Kairi sighed, guilt gnawing at her enough to make her say "Wait."

Zexion glanced back.

"Sorry, I'm just stressed. Today didn't really go as I planned, everybody got freaked out, and I really could use some time with my boyfriend to talk to and feel better."

Zexion's eyebrow raised higher.

"Talk? You two? Last I knew all he ever did was blab on about his own problems and ignore everyone who wasn't Sora."

"Hey, that's my boyfriend you're talking about!"

"And my ex." Zexion stated simply, folding his arms.

Kairi took a deep breath, leveling her gaze at the older boy.

"You know what? You're right, Riku is a douchebag. But he's changing. For the first time in his life he didn't get what he wanted, and so he ended up with me. And at first, he was nothing but the same bottom feeder man whore everybody knew he was. But he's different now. He cares, he listens. Last Christmas humbled him, and whether you believe it or not, he has really changed."

Zexion stayed quiet for a long time, mulling over what she had said before asking "You love him don't you? And I don't just mean love, I mean true love."

Kairi didn't hesitate, saying "Yes."

"So it wouldn't matter if he was old and wrinkly, you'd still love him?"

"Of course."

"And if he saw that you were bald? He wouldn't get disgusted and leave you for someone prettier?"

Kairi hesitated this time, a phantom worry passing through her before she shook her head saying "He wouldn't He really loves me, no matter what."

Zexion shrugged.

"Whatever you say. He's out at the abandoned lot. I wouldn't get your hopes too high though."

He turned and walked away, leaving a confused Kairi. She stayed for only a second longer before turning on her heel and walking out the club door. It was cold outside, and it got even colder as she made her way to the lot. There was nothing but frozen earth and rocks in the lot as he approached. But at the sound of her heels clopping along the pavement, what looked like a lumpy boulder suddenly forced itself up, tired head turning towards the noise.

"Riku?"

The figure huddled up, trying to hide themselves from view.

Kairi huffed, breath misting in the frozen morning air, stomping towards the figure.

"Riku, I don't want to be out here, it's cold and…"

The figure looked up, eyes lost and aged. It was Riku, but maybe Riku in a hundred years. His skin was wrinkled and riddled with liver spots, his hair was practically gone, his teeth were crooked and few in number, and his body was frail. Zexion's question came floating back, the mention of loving him even if he was like this coming back to me.

"Oh Riku…"

Kairi sank down beside her now ancient boyfriend, trying to take it all in.

"Just go." He whispered, his voice raw and cracking.

"No."

"I'm a monster Kairi, I'm heartless. I hurt people and I don't even care. You deserve better. And I deserve this. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Yeah, I do deserve better. That's why you're going to change. It's why you're going to get your act together and be the man I know you can be."

"I don't think I can change…"

"Do you want to?"

"Yes." Riku croaked.

Kairi stayed quiet for a few seconds, before reaching up and pulling off her wig, revealing her shining dome. Riku's wrinkled eyes widened.

"Your hair, what happened?"

"I got pranked. It's all gone. That's not the point. Did Zexion do this to you?"

Riku nodded, never taking his eyes off of her.

"Then he's showing you what you're going to end up as if you keep being a total tool and using people. I can see you like this, and still say I love you and want to be with you. I know what you've done, and I'll always want to be with you. The question is do you want to be with me?"

"What?"

"Do you want to be with me? You're obsessed with everything being perfect and looking hot to you. You want to change? Deal with it. I could get fat, I could end up in a wheel chair, I could get cancer and look all sick and really go bald. Would you be with me through all that? Because I would for you. And tell the truth, because I'm done dating liars."

Riku stayed quiet for a while before raising a trembling hand and clutching hers.

"I love you."

Kairi smiled and leaned forward, kissing his cheek. There was a flash of green light, and suddenly Riku was back to normal.

"How?" Riku asked, staring down at himself, flexing his youthful muscles and running a hand through his hair.

"True loves kiss always works." Kairi said simply, pulling her wig back on and helping Riku up.

"Now let's go home, I'm tired."

Riku pulled off her wig, tossing it to the ground and offering her his arm.

"Whatever my princess desires."

Kairi rolled her eyes, accepting his arm and following as Riku led the way home. It was far from happily ever after, but at least they were making progress.

x-X-x

"Best Halloween ever." I said, sucking my paopu sucker.

Roxas hummed an agreement, leaning his head against my shoulder and looking out over town. The Destiney Island lacked Roxas' clock tower paradise, but right now, sitting together on my roof with me and staring at a slowly brightening horizon felt a lot like our own little slice of paradise.

"I was hoping for more candy." Roxas admitted remorsefully, sadly staring at his half eaten Popsicle.

"I did too, but I got something sweeter." I said, wrapping an arm around him and pulling closer.

Roxas rolled his eyes and got comfortable, fitting into me like a puzzle piece.

"Whatever. It was pretty good though. I'm glad nobody's angry."

"Did you not see Leon's face when we left? I still think he's going to try and strangle you when you come over tomorrow."

"Not too crazy about that idea. Tell you what, let's run away, we'll make a raft, sail away, and become super heroes. Sound good?"

"It's a plan. And we'll use weapons like my Keyblade and fight Heartless and Nobodies. It'll be epic."

Roxas just laughed, smiling as the sun slowly peaked over the horizon.

"You really are perfect." Her murmured, entwining our hands and bring them up to his lips, kissing my knuckles.

"Only when I'm around you."

"You're sure you're sticking around? He asked, a little of that worry coming back.

"Hey."

I gently took his chin making him looked me in the eyes, smirking internally over the slight height difference.

"I made a promise. Forever and always. I love you Roxie, you're my other half. That means you're stuck with this optimistic dweeb FOREVER. Got it?"

Roxas chuckled leaning in.

"Stuck with you forever? I don't think I'll survive another five minutes, let alone forever."

"Only one way to find out." I said.

My mind went back into the house, back to my room and to my secret compartment in the wall, where a small plain blue box was waiting. Two more years till we were old enough, and only one way to find out about all this. Two more Christmases, and Roxie would be getting the surprise of his life. All this Halloween had done was prove what I already knew; Roxas was the one.

"I love you Sor." Roxas whispered, oblivious to my plans.

I smiled, focusing back in the present on the angelic blonde beside me.

"I love me too. Who guess we'd have so much in common."

Roxas and I laughed, before I leaned in, stealing a quick hiss.

"Like I said, way sweeter than any candy. I love you too Roxas. Happy Halloween."

And then we kissed again, the morning sun lighting up the sky, capturing the moment, a picture of the most perfectly imperfect love in the world.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry about the wait, been really busy with school and work. Cheesycorny/fluffy ending, really don't care. Hope you enjoyed, please check out my other works, and by the way, which was your favorite scare? Please review and have a wonderful morning/day/night! Allons-y!**


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